Brown, Senators Push Administration to Side with Workers in Mattress Antidumping Investigation

WASHINGTON, D.C. -U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) has led a bipartisan group of colleagues in calling on the Biden Administration to side with American workers and manufacturers in its antidumping investigation into imported mattresses. More than 12,000 Americans work for U.S. mattress producers, including hundreds of Ohioans at the Tempur Sealy International Plant in Medina and Serta Simmons in Monroe. Brown was joined by U.S. Senators J.D. Vance (R-OH) and Eric Schmitt (R-MO).

"Illegally dumped and subsidized mattress imports continue to harm domestic manufacturers, making it difficult for these companies to succeed and putting American jobs at risk," wrote the senators.

"As you found in your preliminary investigations, these imports are being illegally dumped and causing harm to U.S. mattress producers. America's manufacturing capabilities and workforce are critical to the communities that are home to these factories, and the U.S. cannot afford to continue losing jobs and entire industries due to foreign trade cheats," the senators continued. "We encourage the protection of thousands of American jobs and the domestic mattress industry through our trade enforcement laws."

Brown has long fought to level the playing field for American mattress producers and their workers, successfully pushing the International Trade Commission to take action to counter illegal dumping from China. But foreign competitors continue to cheat and route their products through different countries to get around the antidumping and countervailing duty orders, requiring the Commerce Department and International Trade Commission to take new, additional action.

The full letter is available HERE and below:

Dear Secretary Raimondo and Chairman Johanson:

We write in support of the American mattress industry and the thousands of workers employed by U.S. mattress producers. Illegally dumped and subsidized mattress imports continue to harm domestic manufacturers, making it difficult for these companies to succeed and putting American jobs at risk. We urge you to consider the evidence to assess material injury and determine the fair market value and subsidization necessary to level the playing field for the domestic mattress industry to remain competitive.

There are eleven petitioners in these cases, including nine U.S. businesses (Brooklyn Bedding, Corsicana Mattress Company, Future Foam, FXI, Kolcraft Enterprises, Leggett & Platt, Serta Simmons Bedding, Southerland, and Tempur Sealy) and two unions (International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the United Steelworkers). They represent more than 8,000 workers across 35 states and have been manufacturing mattresses for more than a century. Across the industry, more than 12,000 workers are employed by American mattress producers, and thousands of manufacturing jobs in the mattress supply chain depend on a robust domestic industry. These jobs are at risk due to unfairly-traded imports from foreign competitors.

Illegally dumped and subsidized mattress imports have been harming U.S. mattress manufacturers for almost a decade, already causing more than 50 mattress producers to go out of business since 2016. The Department of Commerce and U.S. International Trade Commission have, on two separate prior occasions, issued antidumping and countervailing duty orders on companies found to be skirting U.S. trade law and flooding our market with lower than fair market value mattresses. Unfortunately, more action is necessary, as the same cheap mattresses are now being imported from a new batch of countries.

As you found in your preliminary investigations, these imports are being illegally dumped and causing harm to U.S. mattress producers. America's manufacturing capabilities and workforce are critical to the communities that are home to these factories, and the U.S. cannot afford to continue losing jobs and entire industries due to foreign trade cheats. American workers are the best in the world but cannot compete with illegally dumped imports. Thousands of workers and their families depend on this industry for their livelihood, and they deserve a level playing field.

We encourage the protection of thousands of American jobs and the domestic mattress industry through our trade enforcement laws. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

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