The Mirror Division of GANA kicked off this year's Glass Week with an afternoon-long meeting on Saturday.

At the technical committee meeting, attendees discussed the current effort to update ASTM C 1036, the standard specification for flat glass, and whether there are any changes, which will have an impact on the mirror manufacturers.

Also, the group, following on the success of its first Mirror Informational Bulletin, Proper Procedures for Cleaning Flat Glass Mirrors, discussed topics that would be strong candidates for future attention.

Two areas came to the fore: proper fabrication techniques for mirrors, and installing mirrors to preserve the life of the mirrors or how to avoid edge deterioration.

At the membership/business segment of the meeting, a report was circulated updating attendees on Chinese mirror and dumping charges.

Following the final determination issuance the end of last year that Chinese wooden bedroom furniture is being imported into the U.S. at less than fair value, on January 4 the Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration (ITA) imposed anti-dumping duties on dozens of designated Chinese manufacturers. The duties are applied to all such furniture sold since June 24, 2004 mostly at a rate of 6.65 percent, down from the 8.64 percent originally imposed in November 2004.

The report stated that the imposed anti-dumping duty margins are too small to have any significant impact on the volume of bedroom furniture imports from China, according to some in the mirror industry.

The bedroom furniture subject to the dumping duties includes vanities including those incorporating mirrors and dressers with framed mirrors attached or hanging over the dressers.

Drew Mayberry, division chairman, pointed out that this action was separate from the effort the mirror manufacturers had undertaken to prove Chinese mirror was being dumped. This effort failed because the manufacturers could not prove that U.S. manufacturers were being hurt because a significant number of them were importing mirror themselves.