SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Procedural Summary. —On November 17, 2025, the Commission instituted this investigation under section 202(b) of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2252(b)) to determine whether quartz surface products are being imported into the United States in such increased quantities as to be a substantial cause of serious injury, or the threat thereof, to the domestic industry producing an article like or directly competitive with the imported article. The Commission instituted the investigation in response to a petition initially submitted on September 15, 2025, and supplemented on September 23, 2025, and November 17, 2025, by the Quartz Manufacturing Alliance of America (“QMAA”),^[1] which ( printed page 29981) was deemed to be properly filed on November 17, 2025.

Notice of the institution of the Commission's investigation and of the scheduling of public hearings to be held in connection therewith was given by posting copies of the notice in the Office of the Secretary, U.S. International Trade Commission, Washington, DC, and by publishing the notice in the Federal Register (90 FR 55165 (December 1, 2025)). The public hearing in connection with the injury phase of the investigation was held on February 24, 2026, in Washington, DC, and the public hearing in connection with the remedy phase of the investigation was held on April 14, 2026, in Washington, DC; all persons who requested the opportunity were permitted to participate. The Commission voted with respect to injury issues on April 1, 2026, and with respect to remedy issues on May 5, 2026.

The Commission submitted its report to the President on May 18, 2026. The report included the Commission's injury determination and remedy recommendations, an explanation of the basis for the determination and remedy recommendations, and a summary of the information obtained in the investigation.

Section 202(f)(3) of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2252(f)(3)) requires that the United States International Trade Commission (“Commission”) publish in the Federal Register a summary of each report that it submits to the President under section 202(f)(1) of the Trade Act of 1974.

Determination. —On the basis of information developed in the subject investigation, the Commission determined pursuant to section 202(b) of the Trade Act of 1974 that quartz surface products are being imported into the United States in such increased quantities as to be a substantial cause of serious injury to the domestic industry producing an article like or directly competitive with the imported article.^[2]

Having made an affirmative injury determination pursuant to section 202(b) of the Trade Act of 1974, the Commission was required to make certain additional findings under the implementing statutes of certain free trade agreements (“FTAs”) or under statutory provisions related to certain preferential trade programs. Under section 301(a) of the United States-Mexico-Canada (“USMCA”) Implementation Act (19 U.S.C. 4551(a)), the Commission found that imports of quartz surface products from neither Canada nor Mexico account for a substantial share of total imports or contribute importantly to the serious injury caused by imports. The Commission further found that imports of quartz surface products from Australia, the U.S.-Dominican Republic—Central America Free Trade Agreement (“CAFTA-DR”) countries, Colombia, Jordan, Panama, Peru, Singapore, and South Korea, individually, are not a substantial cause of serious injury or threat thereof, under the relevant FTA implementing statutes. See 19 U.S.C. 2112 note (Jordan); 19 U.S.C. 3805 note (Australia, Colombia, South Korea, Panama, Peru, Singapore); 19 U.S.C. 4101 (CAFTA-DR). The Commission also found that the serious injury substantially caused by imports to the domestic industry producing a like or directly competitive article does not result from the reduction or elimination of any duty provided for under the U.S.-Israel Free Trade Agreement or from duty-free treatment provided for under the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act (“CBERA”) provisions of the Caribbean Basin Initiative Trade Program or the Generalized System of Preferences (“GSP”) program. See 19 U.S.C. 2112 note (Israel); 19 U.S.C. 2703(e) (CBERA); 19 U.S.C. 2253(e)(6) (GSP).

Remedy recommendations. —In order to address the serious injury to the domestic industry producing quartz surface products and be most effective in facilitating the efforts of the domestic industry to make a positive adjustment to import competition, Chair Amy A. Karpel and Commissioner Jason E. Kearns recommend several actions.

The Commissioners recommend a tariff-rate-quota (TRQ) on imports of quartz surface products, including slabs and fabricated quartz surface products, for a four-year period. The recommended in-quota tariff rate is 25 percent ad valorem and the recommended above-quota tariff rate is 40 percent ad valorem in Year 1 of the relief period, both of which decrease by one percentage point in each subsequent year of the four-year relief period. The TRQ recommended volume is 140,000,000 square feet in Year 1 of the relief period, 159,000,000 square feet in Year 2, 164,000,000 square feet in Year 3, and 169,000,000 square feet in Year 4; and the annual in-quota volume level is recommended to be allocated on a quarterly basis, with each quarter allowing for 25 percent of the in-quota annual volume, and further allowing for any unused portion of a quarterly allocation to be added to the allocation in the following quarter.

Having made negative findings with respect to imports from Canada and Mexico under section 302 of the USMCA Implementation Act, and having made findings that imports from Australia, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Israel, Jordan, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Singapore, and South Korea, and the beneficiary countries under the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act or the GSP program were not a substantial cause of the serious injury experienced by the domestic industry, the Commissioners recommend that the President exclude such countries from any form of the TRQ.

The Commissioners further recommend that the President consider policy proposals suggested by the Petitioners or another robust mechanism to mitigate potential circumvention via non-covered countries.

In addition, Commissioner Kearns recommends several actions:

That the President “de-stack” the in-quota and out-of-quota tariffs imposed by the TRQ action described above with any other tariffs to prevent multiple additional duties on U.S. imports of quartz surface products, in consideration of the potential impact of ( printed page 29982) the TRQ action on domestic manufacturers of downstream products. This does not apply to antidumping and countervailing duty tariffs because they serve a different purpose of remedying unfair trade.

That the President submit to Congress, pursuant to his authority under section 203(a)(3)(H) of the Trade Act of 1974, a legislative proposal to distribute tariff revenue generated by the TRQ action to mitigate the potential impact of the remedy on fabricators of slab QSP.

That the President, pursuant to his authority under section 203(a)(3)(G) of the Trade Act of 1974, continue international negotiations to reduce overcapacity and global imbalances that drive U.S. imports of quartz surface products and other products to levels that injure domestic producers.

That the President authorize the establishment of an exclusion process to allow for importation of U.S. imports of quartz surface products without application of the TRQ action described above in the case of a demonstrated lack of production in the United States for a particularized quartz surface product or in the case of a critical short supply of a particularized quartz surface product from domestic sources.

Availability of the public version of the report. —The public version of the Commission's report containing the Commission's injury determination, its remedy recommendations, an explanation of the basis for its injury determination and remedy recommendations, and a summary of the information obtained in the investigation is contained in Quartz Surface Products, Inv. No. TA-201-79, USITC Publication 5738 (May 2026).

91 FR 29980