As we reported early last week, the US Department of Commerce (DOC) has released its preliminary determinations in the antidumping duty investigations of mattresses imported from Bosnia, Bulgaria, Burma, India, Italy, Kosovo, Mexico, Philippines, Poland, Slovenia, Spain and Taiwan. The preliminary dumping margins range from 10.74 to 744.81%, depending on the country and the exporter or producer from a given country.  

DOC also found “critical circumstances” to exist with respect to the Bosnia, Burma, Italy, the Philippines, and Taiwan investigations. Consequently, DOC has instructed U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to collect antidumping duties retroactively from U.S. importers on entries from these countries made 90 days prior to the date on which the Federal Register publishes DOC’s preliminary determination (which is expected to occur in the next few days). 

The country-specific preliminary dumping margins (and corresponding antidumping duty rates) are as follows:  

Country Preliminary Antidumping Duty Rates 
Bosnia & Herzegovina All exporters/producers: 217.38% 
Bulgaria All exporters/producers: 106.27% 
Burma All exporters/producers: 181.71% 
India International Comfort Technologies Private Limited; Sheela Foam Limited: 42.76%* 

Raj Majal Fabrics: 42.76%* 

Varahamurti Flexirub Industries Private Limited; Amore International, Durfi Retail Private Limited; Springfit Marketing INC: 23.28% 

All other exporters/producers: 23.28% 
Italy All exporters/producers: 257.06% 
Kosovo Ventius International LLC: 62.51% 

Nisco Thailand Co., Ltd.: 344.70%* 

All other exporters/producers: 62.51% 
Mexico Ureblock S.A. de C.V. / Espumas de Oriente S.A. de C.V.: 41.29% 

GAIM Regiomontana SA De CV: 61.97%* 

Wendy Colchones S.A. de C.V.:  61.97%* 

All other exporters/producers: 41.29% 
Philippines All exporters/producers: 538.23% 
Poland All exporters/producers: 330.71% 
Slovenia All exporters/producers: 744.81% 
Spain Healthcare Foam, S.L. Unipersonal / Comotex Sistemas Del Descanso, S.L. Unipersonal: 10.74% 

Interplasp Fabrica de Espuma de Poliuretano: 280.28%* 

All other exporters/producers: 10.74 
Taiwan All exporters/producers: 624.25% 

DOC’s preliminary antidumping determinations will go into effect once its preliminary determinations are published in the Federal Register, which is expected to occur within approximately 5-7 business days from the date of DOC’s determination. At that time, CBP will suspend liquidation of all future entries of mattresses imported from these countries and will collect from the U.S. importer of record cash deposits of estimated antidumping duties in the amounts noted above.[1]  The importer is also responsible for posting the retroactive antidumping duties in those cases subject to the critical circumstances finding mentioned above. 

By way of background, these investigations commenced after ten US mattress manufacturers and two unions representing workers at U.S. mattress plants filed antidumping petitions with both DOC and the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) on July 28, 2023, alleging that imports of mattresses from the above countries were being sold in the United States at unfair prices and were causing material injury to the U.S. mattress industry.  (On the same day, the petitioners also filed a countervailing duty petition on mattresses from Indonesia.  On December 27, 2023, DOC found Indonesia was providing unfair subsidies to its mattress producers at only de minimis levels. As a result, DOC imposed no countervailing duties on imports of mattresses from Indonesia.)   

DOC formally initiated its investigations on August 17, 2023, and the USITC announced the results of its preliminary affirmative injury determinations in these cases on September 11, 2023.  

DOC will accept legal and factual comments from interested parties concerning these preliminary determinations. Based on those comments, DOC will decide in its final antidumping duty determinations whether to raise or lower the above antidumping duty margins. DOC is currently scheduled to release its final antidumping duty determinations on or about May 8, 2023. 

ISPA will continue to monitor these proceedings closely and provide updates. Please contact Ryan Trainer if you have questions regarding these investigations. 

 [1] Liquidation is a Customs term that describes the final step in the importation process when Customs finalizes and the importer pays the total amount of duties and other charges owed on an entry of imported goods. When final payment occurs, Customs liquidates the entry. If DOC finds dumping has occurred, however, Customs by law suspends the liquidation process.  As a result, the total duties owed (if any) on a specific entry become a contingent liability for the U.S. importer and will not be known for months, and sometimes years, after importation has occurred.