Quartz Manufacturers Intervene to Defend Trump Administration Tariffs

The legal intervention follows a complaint filed on August 21 in the U.S. Court of International Trade by importers aiming to invalidate the U.S. International Trade Commission’s (ITC) findings of injury. That bipartisan investigation concluded that a flood of artificially cheap quartz imports had severely damaged the domestic industry, providing the legal basis for the current tariff structure.

Industry leaders argue the duties are critical for re-shoring production and securing 100,000 American jobs. While domestic demand for quartz surfacing climbed 62% over the last five years, domestic production dropped 17.2%, a decline manufacturers attribute to a 78.3% increase in imports between 2020 and 2024. Executives including Cambria CEO Marty Davis and Guidoni USA’s Daniel Vaz De Melo Sa maintain that the importers' challenge lacks merit, noting that the ITC previously dismissed arguments that tariffs would significantly impact U.S. housing affordability, finding that quartz costs represent only 0.07% of the average new home price.

The QMAA, which filed its original safeguard petition under Section 201 of the U.S. Trade Act of 1974 in September 2025, expects the court to uphold the ITC’s initial determination. The tariffs currently exclude imports from free trade agreement partners like Canada and Mexico, but offer no specific product exemptions previously utilized to circumvent trade policy.