Court of Appeals rules that curtain wall units are subject to import duties on Chinese extrusion

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued an order on March 21 in the latest appeal regarding whether curtain wall units are included in the scope of the trade case against the Chinese aluminium extrusion industry. The case filed by Aluminum Extruders Council demanded a collection of anti-dumping and countervailing duties upon import of Chinese extrusion into the U.S.

The court order says that they have not received enough evidence to prove that curtain wall units should be excluded from the Anti-Dumping (AD) and Countervailing Duty (CVD) Orders and affirms that they are within their scope.

In this order the court said, “… we affirm the judgment of the Court of International Trade.” The Order excludes “finished good kits” from the tariffs and defines a “finished good kit” as a packaged combination of parts that, at the time of importation, can be assembled “as is” into the finished product without further finishing and fabrication.”

The Court agreed with Commerce that Yuanda’s imported curtain wall units are not an excluded kit, because Yuanda’s imports are missing some of the parts that are required to be considered as “finished good kit” and the imported parts required further finishing and fabrication.

This affirmation by the courts was applauded by the industry as well as members of the associations.  Curtain Wall Coalition and Aluminum Extruders Council welcomed the court's decision. 

Tom Black, President and Chief Operations Officer with Walters and Wolf, Seattle, said “We are pleased with the Court’s decision in this case. “After years of litigation tactics by the Chinese companies, the courts have conclusively ruled that aluminum extrusions are covered by the AEC’s orders in curtain wall end-use applications.”

Guy Charpentier, Division Marketing Director with Bonnell Aluminum, added, “This is a major victory for the AEC, the Curtain Wall Coalition, and the industry.  Curtain wall applications are the largest sub-segment of extrusion consumption in the building and construction space.  A loss at the court level in this matter would have had severe and negative impacts to the aluminum extrusion industry and to the curtain wall market.”