The Quartz Manufacturing Alliance of America (QMAA) is a coalition of U.S.-based, American quartz slab manufacturing factories, united with other industry leaders to support and strengthen the American quartz industry. QMAA is committed to ensuring a free and fair, competitive marketplace born of free enterprise that provides the opportunity to compete on a level playing field for American quartz slab manufacturing factories and their valued workers. We also believe this effort will have a positive impact throughout the entire quartz surfacing industry, including to the strong benefit of American stone fabrication shops.
THE ISSUE
Surge in Imports and Violations of Existing U.S. Trade Laws
The U.S. quartz industry is facing serious injury from a surge of imports. In 2019, the U.S. government imposed antidumping and countervailing duties (AD/CVD) of over 500% on quartz from China to combat illegal dumping and subsidization.
Since then, foreign producers have engaged in evasive, and illegal, tactics to circumvent the U.S. trade laws, including:
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Country-Hopping: Relocating production to countries without tariffs or with lower tariffs, like India, Thailand, and Vietnam, to circumvent the payment of duties and the remedy provided to level the playing field for American manufacturers and workers.
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Illegal Transshipment: Routing quartz from countries subject to duties through another country to fraudulently evade duties.
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Fraudulent Misclassification: Illegally mislabeling quartz as other products, such as "crushed glass" or marble, to evade duties.
These illegal business practices directly harm American quartz slab manufacturing factories. Upwards of 200,000,000 square feet of Quartz slabs manufactured offshore are now being imported and often dumped into the United States. These products are often dumped into the United States at prices below U.S. domestic factories' raw material costs, a staggering fact. Additionally, this has also resulted in a flood of offshore-fabricated products, with over 40 million square feet of fabricated quartz surfacing imported into the United States in 2024 alone, equating to more than 1,000,000 raw quartz stone slabs.
THE SOLUTION
Enforcing Existing U.S. Trade Laws
On Monday, September 15, 2025, the QMAA filed a Safeguard Petition under Sections 201–202 of the Trade Act of 1974, requesting the U.S. government swiftly investigate and effectively address an unprecedented surge of quartz slab imports and ongoing violations of existing U.S. trade laws.
This is a formal request for the U.S. government to study the import surge and enforce its existing trade laws. This action is not about stopping competition; it is a demand to stop illegal trade activity and ensure a level playing field for American quartz slab factories, businesses, and workers.
The abbreviated list of companies that make up the Quartz Manufacturing Alliance of America (QMAA) include:
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Cambria
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Dal-Tile/Mohawk Industries
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Guidoni USA
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E-Stone Surfaces
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Hendrix Industries
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LX Hausys
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Hyundai L&C USA
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Architectural Surfaces
FAQ
Q: What is a Section 201 Safeguard petition?
A: A Safeguard petition under the Trade Act of 1974 is a legal tool a U.S. industry can use to obtain temporary relief from a surge in global imports that is causing or threatening to cause "serious injury." It is designed to address a massive, overall increase in imports from all sources.
Q: What are "country-hopping" and "transshipment"?
A: These are intentionally deceptive tactics used to evade U.S. tariffs. "Country-hopping" involves moving production to another country to circumvent duties. "Transshipment" is a form of fraud where goods from a tariffed country are shipped through a second country and illegally relabeled to hide their true origin.
Q: Will this Safeguard action make quartz countertops more expensive?
A: The QMAA does not expect significant price increases for homeowners. The artificially low prices of some imports are the result of illegal trade practices, and the financial benefit often goes to the importers and distributors, not the consumer. A trade remedy aims to restore an honest, market-based pricing and economics, ensuring businesses and workers can compete on a level playing field in U.S. markets based on free and fair, market-based enterprise.
Q: Is this action trying to eliminate competition?
A: No, absolutely not. This action is about ensuring free and fair competition on a level playing field for American Quartz manufacturing factories. The QMAA welcomes competition from any company that abides by U.S. and international trade laws. The petition specifically targets the surge of imports and the illegal and unfair trading practices that violate the integrity of the U.S. free and fair marketplace.
Q: How many American jobs are at risk?
A: Thousands of manufacturing factory jobs are at risk if this import surge is not effectively addressed. The effect of this will not end with Quartz slab manufacturing factory jobs; thousands more jobs will be at risk downstream and throughout the entire value chain that process, finish, and sell the manufactured Quartz slabs as finished surfaces in homes and businesses throughout America.
Q: How does this issue affect local American stone fabrication countertop shops?
A: It is a direct and severe threat to our U.S. stone fabrication shops. When foreign countries game and manipulate their economic systems to dump cheap, false economics on free markets, in the form of low pricing, it severely damages U.S. Manufacturing factories who must compete on competitive, market-based economics. Furthermore, when foreign companies export finished, fabricated offshore quartz countertops, they bypass the American stone fabricator. Stone fabrication and finishing is a vital and critical, value-adding process in the go-to-market channel for quartz surfacing products. The Safeguard petition will also help secure thousands of jobs in American stone fabrication shops. These companies are an important and valued business channel partner in the U.S. market for quartz surfacing products.
Q: Who are the members of the QMAA?
A: The Quartz Manufacturing Alliance of America (QMAA) is a coalition of American Quartz slab manufacturing factories and companies in the domestic quartz industry. By standing together, the members of QMAA aim to preserve the integrity of the marketplace in the American quartz slab manufacturing industry and build a level playing field for sustained growth and innovation throughout the entire quartz surfacing industry.
CONTACT
For more information, contact:
Luke A. Meisner
Partner
SCHAGRIN ASSOCIATES
900 Seventh Street NW
Suite 500
Washington, D.C. 20001
P: (202) 223-1700
E: lmeisner@schagrinassociates.com