Hooker Furniture leaves, five other companies join antidumping coalition.Hooker Furniture of Martinsville, VA, has pulled out of the coalition of American wood bedroom furnituremakers that tiled tile n. 1. A thin, flat or convex slab of hard material such as baked clay or plastic, laid in rows to cover walls, floors, and roofs. 2. A short length of pipe made of clay or concrete, used in sewers and drains. 3. an antidumping an·ti·dump·ing adj. Intended to discourage importation and sale of foreign-made goods at prices substantially below domestic prices for the same items. petition against China's manufacturers. The petition, filed with the International Trade Commission and U.S. Department of Commerce, seeks import duties averaging 158% on Chinese wood bedroom furniture, which American manufacturers say are unfairly priced. Four days after Hooker remounted it was leaving the American Furniture Manufacturers Committee for Legal Trade, five more companies joined: Kindel Furniture Co. of Grand Rapids Grand Rapids, city (1990 pop. 189,126), seat of Kent co., SW central Mich., on the Grand River; inc. 1850. The second largest city in the state, it is a distribution, wholesale, and industrial center for an area that yields fruit, dairy products, farm produce, , MI, Value Line Co. of Arkadelphia, AR., Baker Road Furniture of South Elgin, IL, Inwood Furniture of Texas and Modern Furniture of Washington. Hooker Furniture was a founding member of the Committee for Legal Trade. Independent of Hooker, one of its vice presidents, Lewis Canter canter a gallop at an easy pace. The rhythm is three-time, first one hind, then the opposite hind with the diagonal fore, then the opposite fore, the leading limb. collected canter , helped launch www.saveusfurniturejobs.com. The site went online last, summer, shortly after the coalition was formed. It is still up. On the site, Canter urges furniture workers to write their legislators in support of the coalition and an investigation into what is called the undervaluation un·der·val·ue tr.v. un·der·val·ued, un·der·val·u·ing, un·der·val·ues 1. To assign too low a value to; underestimate. 2. To have too little regard or esteem for. of Chinese currency Currency has been used in China since the New Stone Age, in which Chinese also invented paper money in the 9th century. Today Renminbi (Chinese: 人民幣), literally People's currency, abbreviated to RMB, is the currency in mainland of the People's , which some also blame for the furniture industry's problems. "It's not a Hooker Web site," Canter said. "It's still just a letter-writing campaign." The antidumping petition was filed Oct. 31,2003. A strong backlash came front American retailers, saying import duties on wood bedroom furniture would force them to raise their prices, and thus result in lost jobs and customers. Controversy swirled amongst retailers and furnituremakers, and now Hooker has reconsidered its part in the petition. Paul B. Toms Jr., Hooker chairman and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. , said domestic bedroom furniture accounted for only 4% of its $309 million sales ht 2003. "We have come to believe that the potential adverse effects on our relationships with our customers and international suppliers outweigh out·weigh tr.v. out·weighed, out·weigh·ing, out·weighs 1. To weigh more than. 2. To be more significant than; exceed in value or importance: The benefits outweigh the risks. the benefits of continuing to actively support the petition," Toms said. "We continue to support free, fair and legal trade and are opposed to any trade that revolves illegally dumping furniture into the U.S. market. That position has not changed." Mike Veitenheimer, spokesperson for the Furniture Retailers Assn., which was formed in opposition to the petition, applauded Hooker's move. "We hope that other domestic furniture manufacturers come to their senses and abandon the petition, which is a blatant attempt to use the U.S. government to manipulate the bedroom furniture market at the expense of American consumers and independent furniture retail stores." Veitenheimer is vice president and general counsel for Fort Worth, TX-based The Bombay Co. |
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