For a long time, China's wooden furniture exports have maintained an annual growth rate of almost 20%. China has surpassed Europe and the United States to become the world's largest producer and exporter of furniture. From January to July 2012, China's furniture exports exceeded US $ 27.5 billion, a year-on-year increase of 28%. However, behind the increasing number of exports, combined with various complex factors, foreign technical trade measures and protectionist tendencies are also emerging.
U.S. trade protection tends to become increasingly apparent
From April 1 this year, the implementation scope of the US Lacey Act will be expanded, and the scope of the Act will be extended to all wooden furniture products, requiring importers to provide raw material sources each time they ship plants or forest products. The basic declaration of the tree species, including the Latin name of the selected wood species, the country of harvesting, quantity, size and value, etc. The illegal behavior may be punished by not more than 500,000 US dollars or not more than 5 years of imprisonment and confiscated goods. This bill will have a significant impact on wooden furniture export companies.
By September 18th, the US Department of Commerce announced that it would initiate an anti-dumping and anti-subsidy (“dual antiâ€) investigation on hardwood and decorative plywood imported from China. This is the fourth anti-dumping investigation initiated by the United States against Chinese products this year. And the third countervailing investigation, according to data from the US Department of Commerce, the value of hardwood and decorative plywood imported from China by the United States in 2011 is expected to be 616.5 million US dollars. The reason why this investigation was initiated was due to the Fair Trade Association of American Hardwood Plywood. At the request, the federation believed that China ’s exports of hardwood and decorative plywood to the United States ranged from 298.36% to 321.68%, and the subsidy range also exceeded the allowable range of 2%. The investigation may result in the US imposing punitive tariffs on such products.
According to U.S. procedures, the U.S. International Trade Commission is expected to make a preliminary ruling on the investigation around November 13. If the agency determines that such products imported from China cause substantial damage or threat to U.S. related industries, the U.S. Department of Commerce will continue Conduct a "dual anti" investigation and expect to make preliminary results of anti-subsidy and anti-dumping investigations in December this year and March next year.
Analysts say that this year is the year of the US election. The Obama administration frequently “beats China†for campaign purposes and repeatedly launches “dual opposition†and “337 investigations†on Chinese products. Trade protectionism is clearly heating up.
The EU requires China's wooden furniture and other exports must pass FSC certification
Recently, the European Parliament passed regulations on wood and wood products originating from third countries to ensure that the risk of illegally harvesting wood and wood products flowing into the EU is eliminated, requiring all operators in the supply chain to share responsibilities. The new regulations are stricter than the provisions contained in the bill originally proposed by the European Commission.
After the regulation is passed by the European Parliament, it must be agreed by the European Council before it can be implemented.
The regulations cover wooden furniture used in office furniture, kitchens, bedrooms, guest and dining rooms, woodware (including certain types of wooden decorative panels), various types of wooden boards, wooden picture frames, photo frames and mirror frames, and various types of wooden packaging (Including boxes, boxes, etc.). The new timber law requires all manufacturers in the wood production, processing and sales chain to submit to the EU basic information that proves the legality of the source of timber, such as the origin of the timber, the country and the forest, the volume and weight of the timber, the name and address of the log supplier, illegal timber And wood products will be severely punished. The inspection and quarantine department recommends that for the new EU timber law, companies should ensure that the source of wood products is legal and choose responsible sources, implement responsible procurement, and actively move towards sustainable timber certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) to ensure that The completeness of basic materials such as the legality certificate of exporting wood and wood products to the EU is complete, and participation in illegal wood and illegal wood products transactions shall be eliminated.
Of course, from an external perspective, these situations are logically and logically understandable and foreseeable. As the world ’s largest furniture production and exporting country, standing in the so-called "high place" is naturally "very cold." "But what needs to be seen is that the current situation is not simply external trade protection, but also has its own reasons.
Brand construction lags behind and ignores the homogenization of R & D products. Under the situation of global economic integration, the trend of the furniture market has gradually diversified and personalized furniture products, and furniture brands have become the first choice for consumers. The furniture products exported by our country are mainly OEM, and the design drawings of the products are provided by foreign companies, which makes our enterprises at the low end of the value chain, serious homogenization competition, weak resistance to risks, let alone in the market Take the initiative in the economy. The lack of original product design, competitive brands and serious plagiarism in China's furniture industry are all important issues that hinder the development of the furniture industry.
The lack of scientific enterprise management, low production efficiency
First of all, the lack of enterprise training and frequent staff turnover have led to low-quality front-line employees and unfamiliarity with the operation of modern machines, which has seriously affected the improvement of production efficiency. At present, the annual per capita output value of China's northern furniture industry is 100,000 yuan, and that of southern enterprises is slightly higher, reaching 300,000 yuan, while the per capita output value of developed countries exceeds 100,000 US dollars.
Second, insufficient investment in automation facilities has limited the improvement of production efficiency. Although some enterprises are aware of this problem, the lack of funds has become a bottleneck.
Third, the internal management of the enterprise is unscientific, the process design is uneconomical, and even some processes are unreasonable, which severely limits the improvement of production efficiency, which in turn affects the market competitiveness of the enterprise.
Guangzhou Jointair Co., Ltd. , https://www.jointair.cn