US Mattress Manufacturers Respond to False Claims Alleged by Importers

WASHINGTON, April 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A group of U.S. mattress manufacturers and unions, which has asked the U.S. government to investigate potential illegal subsidies and dumping of imported mattresses, is responding to false allegations from importing companies. In March, U.S. mattress manufacturers Brooklyn Bedding, Corsicana Mattress Company, Elite Comfort Solutions, FXI, Inc., Kolcraft Enterprises Inc., and Leggett & Platt, Incorporated, as well as the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union, AFL-CIO, filed anti-dumping duty petitions against unfairly traded imports of mattresses from Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Serbia, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam, and a countervailing duty petition on subsidized mattresses from China. Dumped and subsidized imports from these countries are harming U.S. workers, manufacturers and their suppliers.

A group of companies that imports mattresses from the countries listed above are attacking American mattress manufacturers through a shameless and misleading campaign. Here are the facts:

• There is no shortage of mattresses available to the U.S. health care system or other organizations responding to COVID-19. American mattress manufacturers – using American workers – can collectively manufacture and deliver more than 400,000 mattresses a week for emergency use during this crisis.
• The filing of this petition does not bar imports – it simply requests the U.S. government use a Congressionally mandated process to independently investigate whether unfair trade exists and is injuring U.S. producers and American workers.
• This investigation to determine whether illegal subsidies and dumping of imported mattresses and injury to U.S. industry has occurred will unfold over the course of more than a year, with the U.S. federal government determining whether or when duties should be applied on imports, expected in about six months.
• Nothing about this petition has any impact on the availability of mattresses now or in the future; however, if importers rely on dumped or subsidized product, they may have to pay a duty.
• Dumped and subsidized imports have surged into the U.S. market in recent years, harming U.S. manufacturing workers.
• Since 2017, more than 40 American mattress manufacturers have been forced to close their doors due to these massive increases in the volume of unfairly traded imports – negatively impacting thousands of American workers across the entire country.
• Those thousands of American workers were thrown out of work by these unfair trade practices, even before the remaining American mattress producers reported another 1,300 jobs lost due to the huge increases in dumped imports between 2017 and mid-2019.
• American producers are fighting to stay in business during one of the most difficult economic challenges our country has ever seen.
• In the face of continued huge import surges at dumped or subsidized prices, American manufacturers and unions had no choice but to take action now, under U.S. trade law, to protect workers.
• There is absolutely no current policy limitation on the number of mattresses sold in America, whether those mattresses are made by U.S. manufacturers or imported from other countries.

"If illegal dumping and foreign subsidization continue, tens of thousands of American workers will be hurt," said Yohai Baisburd, counsel to the Mattress Petitioners. "This damage will also extend beyond the mattress industry, to American suppliers and producers of textiles, innersprings, foam, clips and machinery. This would also impact warehouse, transportation and retail workers.

"American mattress producers can compete with anyone on a level playing field and based on fair competition," said Baisburd. "If dumped and subsidized imports continue to enter the US, it will only further the great harm being felt by American mattress manufacturers and workers."

SOURCE The Mattress Petitioners