Coming to Grips with Furniture Imports.

MANY OF US AMERICANS drive foreign cars, quench our thirst with imported beers and seek entertainment from electronics gear almost certainly made anywhere but in the United States.

To be an American consumer is to have access to the widest selection of goods that the world has to offer. To be an American manufacturer is to bear the fullest brunt of global competition. Whether it is TV sets, t-shirts, SUVs or ONO routers, manufacturers from every corner around world want a piece of the the U.S. consumers' wallet.

Furniture is no exception.

As Wood & Wood Products reported last month, a stunningly large and growing portion of U.S. residential furniture manufacturing has moved offshore, particularly to the Far East and primarily to China. Name a major U.S. manufacturer of furniture and the odds are that it is sourcing furniture, parts or both from offshore suppliers.

Some look beyond U.S. borders to broaden or fill in their product lines. In more extreme cases, big-name manufacturers are shutting down entire plants to have entire product lines made elsewhere. In either instance, manufacturers say they are being driven to import products because of cost considerations. They have given up on the notion that they can effectively compete with imports by modernizing existing plants or building new ones.

This trend is understandably disturbing to the furniture workers who lose their jobs, the communities that see their economic base reduced and the industry suppliers that lose key customers. Many are particularly perturbed that the fastest-growing source of their losses is China, a nation striving to make economic gains and improve its standard of living on one hand while continuing to deprive its people of the fundamental freedoms we sometimes take for granted on the other.

Like it or not, the furniture industry is not doing anything that is not being done by a host of other manufacturing industries that have been overrun by lower-cost imported goods. In fact, our elected leaders have further opened the door to furniture imports through actions like the North American Free Trade Agreement and last year's move to normalize trade relations with China. The ultimate hope is that less economically fortunate nations like Mexico and China will boost their standard of living to the point that they will buy more U.S. made goods.

Furniture Steering Committee Seeks Answers

The ongoing debate is whether or not the furniture industry could have held its ground if companies had invested in state-of-the-art manufacturing plants 10 years or more ago.

There is no shortage of equipment suppliers and other vested observers who say that the furniture industry was asleep at the wheel when furniture imports began making serious inroads to their business in the mid-1980s. Those in the furniture industry counter that the quadruple whammy of aggressive foreign competition with an excess capacity of low-wage labor, regulatory burdens to expand or build new plants, shortage of skilled labor and diminishing profit margins, made the current scenario a forgone conclusion.

What might be done now based on what has occurred is an issue being taken up by the Furniture Steering Committee, a group brought together by North Carolina State University's Department of Wood and Paper Science and USDA Forest Service. The group, composed of furniture manufacturers, suppliers, consultants and other interested parties, met June 1 to define the industry's problems and seek ideas that might be used to help make the furniture industry more competitive.

While the committee's initial thrust has been the furniture industry, any woodworking company or supplier who feels its business is at stake because of foreign competition, is invited to participate in the discussion. To find out more about the Furniture Steering Committee and to voice your comments, contact Urs Buehlmann, assistant profession and extension specialist for NCSU's Department of Wood and Paper Science, [e-mail].