Auggie Tantillo AMTAC Washington Coordinator "Between their labor pool, industrial capacity, and growth in exports to the United States, China has the ability to consume most of the U.S. market if left unrestrained"

The American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition (AMTAC) recently briefed the House Furnishings Caucus on its furniture legislative agenda.

AMTAC Washington Coordinator Auggie Tantillo said, "Job-destroying furniture imports are skyrocketing. The trade deficit in furniture and bedding was $21 billion in 2002 and is already up 23% for 2003. Nearly 100,000 furniture jobs have been destroyed since January 2001, a loss of 14.8 percent."

"The sad part is that this is just the beginning. Major U.S. furniture manufacturers have recently announced aggressive business plans to outsource manufacturing operations to Asian countries, including China. Until recently, U.S.-made furniture products were thought to be invulnerable to competition from foreign imports in the U.S. market. Now, it is clear that U.S.-made furniture products are in serious jeopardy of losing a great deal of domestic market share in the near future. Dozens of companies will be destroyed and tens of thousands of jobs will be lost unless major policy changes are made soon," continued Tantillo.

AMTAC made several policy recommendations to the Furnishings Caucus. To better highlight U.S.-made products, AMTAC proposed revising country-of-origin labeling laws so that the label would be on the furniture product itself. Current law allows for the placement of country-of-origin labeling on furniture packaging, making it difficult for consumers to identify the country of origin of unpackaged furniture displayed for sale on U.S. showroom floors.

To slow the unprecedented surge of highly damaging Chinese furniture imports, AMTAC encouraged the Furnishings Caucus to demand that the Administration invoke the general China safeguard. The safeguard would temporarily place strict quota limits on Chinese furniture imports.

The trade deficit in furniture and bedding with China alone jumped from $7.4 billion in 2001 to $9.84 billion in 2002 - an increase of 33%. Said Tantillo, "Between their labor pool, industrial capacity, and growth in exports to the United States, China has the ability to consume most of the U.S. market if left unrestrained."

On other trade issues, AMTAC urged the Furnishings Caucus to oppose USTR's efforts to eliminate U.S. tariffs on imported furniture products in the ongoing Doha Round of WTO negotiations and to reject any free trade agreements, such as the Singapore FTA, that encourage outsourcing over domestic manufacturing.

In the domestic arena, AMTAC asked the Furnishings Caucus to work to expand the U.S. government's "Buy American" provisions to include furniture.

"If the U.S. government refuses to check the onslaught of imported Chinese furniture products, U.S. furniture manufacturing sector rapidly will be destroyed within the next few years. A united Furnishings Caucus acting upon AMTAC's legislative proposals would go a long way toward boosting the health of an embattled industry," concluded Tantillo.

View AMTAC's Power Point Presentation