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Enforcement Instructions

CONCERNING IMPORTS OF CERTAIN LAMINATE FLOORING FROM THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA AND FRANCE FOLLOWING NOVEMBER 26, 2007 RE-INVESTIGATION CONCLUSION

On June 16, 2005, the Canadian International Trade Tribunal (Tribunal) found that the dumping in Canada of certain laminate flooring originating in or exported from the People’s Republic of China (China) and France and the subsidizing of such product originating in or exported from China have caused injury to the domestic industry.

All imports released from customs after the date of the Tribunal’s finding will be subject to anti‑dumping duty equal to the margin of dumping and/or countervailing duty equal to the amount of subsidy.

On November 26, 200 7, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) concluded its re‑investigation of the normal values and export prices respecting laminate flooring originating in or exported from the People’s Republic of China (China) and France and concluded its review of subsidizing in China.

The results of this re‑investigation will remain in effect, barring individual changes to these instructions in the interim, until the conclusion of a future re‑investigation, as yet unspecified.

Product Information

For the purposes of enforcement, the subject goods are defined as laminate flooring in thickness ranging from 5.5 mm to 13 mm (other than laminate hardwood flooring where the hardwood component exceeds 2 mm in thickness) originating in or exported from China and France.

Laminate flooring is a rigid flooring material consisting of several layers: a wear or surface layer, a decorative layer, a core layer—usually high-density fibreboard (HDF)—and a backer or balancing layer. Laminate flooring with paper has wear, decorative and balancing layers of paper. The decorative layer is printed with the motif and colour that will show on the flooring, usually a wood grain or ceramic tile pattern.

The decorative and balancing layers of laminate flooring with wood consist of a thin layer (e.g. 0.5 mm) of real wood veneer, while the wear layer takes the form of multiple coats of polyurethane.

In the market, laminate flooring may be described as “laminated wood flooring”, “floating wood flooring” or “floating flooring”.

The thickness of the subject goods is that of the laminate flooring only. If a laminate flooring has what may be referred to as an attached underlay to reduce noise levels or attached foam backer or noise reduction layer, the thickness of this underlay is not added to the thickness of the actual laminate flooring in determining if the product thickness is within the subject range.

Information Required On Customs Documents

The following information is required to be provided to the CBSA, whether the documentation is submitted in hard copy or in electronic form.

Please ensure that the information submitted for Customs purposes fully describes the subject goods. Failure to do so may result in an incorrect assessment of anti-dumping duty or an administrative penalty against the importer.

The import documentation should clearly indicate the following:

full product description including:
- product identification name or number, as ruled for normal value (for example, length x width x thickness, AC#, E#);
- if the laminate flooring includes a “sound backing” material, indicate this, including the backing thickness;
- quantity in square metres;
name and address of the producer/manufacturer, if known;
name and address of vendor (if different from producer);
name and address of customer in Canada;
Canadian importer’s name and address (if different from the customer);
date of sale;
date of shipment;
unit selling price (on a per square metre basis)
currency of invoicing (for example, USD, CAD, etc.);
terms and conditions of sale (for example, FOB (place), CIF, etc.); and
all costs, expenses, and charges incurred by the exporter and vendor in the shipment of the subject goods to Canada, from the point of direct shipment (includes inland freight, insurance, brokerage, port fees, bank charges, ocean freight, etc.).

Classification of Imports

Laminate flooring is properly classified in Section IX of the Customs Tariff under the Harmonized System (HS) at subheading 4411.92.90.20, for which the unit of measure code is MTK (square metres).

Calculation of Anti-dumping Duty – resulting from the Dumping Re‑investigation

For importations of subject goods produced or exported by a company in China or France named below, information regarding the normal value of the goods in question or the amount of anti‑dumping duty payable, should be obtained from the exporter.

As well, information may be made available to importers by the CBSA, on a need-to-know basis, in accordance with the provisions of Memorandum D14-1-2, Disclosure of Normal Value and Export Price Established Under the Special Import Measures Act to Importers.

NOTE: the issuing of normal values to an exporter does not necessarily mean that there is no anti‑dumping duty payable. Anti-dumping duty would be owing if the export price is less than the normal value.

For importations of subject goods produced or exported by a company in China or France not named below, that is, companies that have not been issued their own normal values, the anti dumping duty is the following percentage, taken as a percent of the export price, as determined under section 24, 25 or 29 of the Special Import Measures Act:

China 30.0%
France 30.0%

Countervailing Duty – resulting from the Subsidy Re-investigation in China

SIMA Assessment - sample calculation for imports from China

Note: exchange rate will vary.

Value For Duty = CAD$1,100.00; ocean freight = CAD$100.00; quantity = 100 m²
Export Price = 1,100.00 – 100.00 = CAD$1,000.00
Anti-dumping duty = 1,000.00 x 30.0% = $300.00
Countervailing duty = 3.54 RMB x 100 m² x (exchange rate) .1498 = $53.03
SIMA Assessment = 300.00 + 53.03 = $353.03

Sample Calculation – sample calculation for imports from France

Value For Duty = CAD$1,100.00; ocean freight = CAD$100.00; quantity = 100 m²
Export Price = 1,100.00 – 100.00 = CAD$1,000.00
Anti-dumping duty = 1,000.00 x 30.0% = $300.00
SIMA Assessment = $300.00