American quartz countertop producers are the most recent sector to be hurt by rapacious imports.
Foreign governments and producers will go to great lengths to bankrupt their American rivals if the market is lucrative. The producers of quartz products in America are the most recent industry to feel the pressure in this ongoing conflict. This is due to a surge in countertops and kitchen tiles made in India that are being resisted by the United States at a price well below their actual cost of production. It is a blatant instance of “dumping,” which is prohibited by American trade law. The Biden administration needs to put laws in place to stop these kinds of artificially and illegally underpriced imports in response.
Quartz surface products have recently experienced tremendous growth in the housing market. The global market for engineered quartz is expected to reach $23 billion in 2021 alone. Furthermore, a significant portion of that market is in the United States, as is evident from a recent investigation by the U.S. Department of Commerce. By skirting American trade laws, Indian quartz producers are essentially making a full-court press to drive American countertop manufacturers out of business.
2018 saw a significant victory for American quartz countertop manufacturers and employees over Chinese dumping. Cambria, a manufacturer of quartz surface products with headquarters in Minnesota and over 2,000 employees, had submitted a trade case to the Department of Commerce. The Commerce Department later found that Cambria had a valid complaint. Chinese quartz countertop producers were breaking long-standing U.S. trade laws by selling significant quantities of quartz products in the country for significantly less than it would have cost to produce them.
In order to counteract this predatory trade, the Commerce Department implemented tariffs. This assisted the domestic market share recovery of the American countertop industry.
Since then, capital has poured into the U.S. quartz countertop industry, with upwards of $800 million going toward existing and future factories and machinery. Companies from South America, Israel, Korea, and Spain have begun investing in new U.S. quartz factories, in addition to American producers. The only issue is that India’s export dumping of quartz products jeopardizes this investment.
What’s particularly unsettling is that many of the producers who were the subject of the Commerce Department’s investigation in 2018 also contribute significantly to this illegal dumping.
Some Chinese producers simply relocated their quartz factories and equipment to India in order to avoid U.S. tariffs. U.S. quartz producers have thus had to ask Washington for action once more just as they were starting to recover.
The Commerce Department looked into an Indian quartz manufacturer earlier this year because they were allegedly selling their goods for less than fair market value. Commerce gave the company several extensions to submit additional data after the company’s data was questioned. But after more delays, the Indian company was hit with preliminary tariffs by Commerce for breaking American trade laws.
This should be excellent news for American quartz countertop manufacturers. However, the importers who profit from this trade fraud are now complaining that they are being treated unfairly and want the American government to stop imposing tariffs.
However, federal import data clearly demonstrates the scope of the issue. Quartz imports from India increased by 700% over 2016 levels just in 2019. This was unequivocal proof that predatory pricing was done on purpose to undercut American businesses.
Lobbyists for India’s quartz industry are currently trying to prevent the U.S. government from enforcing further tariffs in order to maintain this advantage; this strategy is creating uncertainty in the U.S. market. Companies are currently rethinking their investments in the domestic quartz industry in America. As a result, the U.S. quartz supply chain has experienced decreased performance, reduced operating schedules, and lower production levels.
The producers of quartz countertops in America are merely the newest sector to deal with this kind of aggressive rivalry. But by taking immediate action to enforce American trade laws, President Biden can make his point clearly. In order to defend our quartz manufacturers, the administration would have to refuse to allow imports in any sector to be artificially underpriced, which would contribute to maintaining the industrial security of the country.