Walk into any U.S. kitchen and you’re likely to find one of the nation’s most underappreciated industries: American-made wooden cabinets. Consumers may not realize it, but the U.S. kitchen cabinet industry supports 250,000 jobs and bolsters countless local economies. In fact, 95 percent of the industry consists of family-owned companies, with 40 percent in rural communities. Unfortunately, these family-run companies are now facing assault from overseas.
Over the past decade, the U.S. kitchen cabinet industry has been inundated by a surge of imports. Imported cabinets are being sold in the United States at below-market prices thanks to large, foreign government subsidies and unfair dumping practices. And what began as an import surge from China has now ballooned into a wider flood, driven by transshipment through Southeast Asia and Mexico. In 2024, cabinet imports reached $3.7 billion — double the amount a decade ago. Since 2010, U.S. cabinet manufacturers have lost 20 percent of the domestic market.
The damage has been brutal. In the last year, Cabinetworks shuttered plants in Texas and Pennsylvania, laying off hundreds of workers. Dura Supreme Cabinetry laid off all 74 of its employees in North Carolina. UltraCraft Cabinetry will close later this year, cutting 200 jobs. And American Woodmark, Olon Industries, Solid Wood Cabinets, and MasterBrand Cabinets have all suffered mass layoffs or shut down U.S. facilities entirely.
This is what happens when overseas manufacturers use industrial dumping and transnational evasion to put U.S. producers out of business. By 2018, for example, China had captured $1.7 billion worth of America’s kitchen cabinet market. The first Trump administration responded with Section 301 tariffs, and U.S. producers also won a hard-fought antidumping case in 2019. These tariffs and trade measures were effective, reducing Chinese imports to less than $20 million in 2024. The tariffs also had no effect on prices. From 2018 to 2020, the Producer Price Index for wood kitchen cabinets rose 1.4 percent annually, which is less than the consumer inflation rate across all goods.
However, Chinese businesses quickly started funneling cabinets and components through Vietnam, Malaysia, Mexico, Thailand and other low-cost production hubs. They rebranded their cabinets as “Made in Vietnam,” or “Made in Malaysia,” or “Made in Mexico” to avoid U.S. tariffs. The Department of Commerce and U.S. Customs subsequently found widespread use of Chinese components and fraudulent labeling in many imported cabinets. One 2022 Customs inspection found a Malaysian warehouse filled with identical cabinets — some stamped “China,” others “Malaysia” — awaiting export.
Thanks to the evasion schemes of Chinese subsidiaries, U.S. trade enforcement can’t keep up. Southeast Asian countries now account for 57 percent of all U.S. cabinet imports, with Mexico adding an additional 10 percent. The U.S. trade deficit in kitchen cabinets surpassed 2018 levels, reaching $3 billion annually and continuing to rise.
America’s antidumping cases can’t match the speed of overseas trade evasion. Foreign producers shift production whenever the U.S. imposes new, country-specific tariffs. That’s why a new approach is needed, one that targets the entire global supply chain, not just one country at a time.
In March, the administration initiated a federal Section 232 trade investigation into timber, lumber and derivative products — including kitchen cabinets. This action is overdue and urgently needed to support middle-class jobs in vulnerable communities, anchor family businesses, and reinforce the resilience of America’s broader wood and timber supply chains.
The government is right to investigate threats to America’s cabinet industry, and should swiftly impose a minimum 100 percent tariff on all imported wooden kitchen and bathroom cabinets as well as parts. Doing so could offset the massive subsidies and dumping practiced by China and other countries. These remedies must also be airtight — any exemptions or carve-outs could be exploited, undermining the entire policy.
This isn’t just about saving one industry. It’s about whether the United States is still capable of defending domestic manufacturers and their workers. The U.S. market has been exploited by trade cheats for too long. It’s time to shut the door for good and deliver the whole Section 232 defense this American industry deserves.
