The US Department of Commerce said it was cutting duties on furniture made by 20 Chinese producers. It decided the companies qualified for a separate rate that reduces duties, originally imposed on dumping grounds, from the maximum 198.08% to 10.92%. The US said it had established that the firms operated independently of the central government. Edmund Sim, a partner at US law firm White & Case quoted in a South China Morning Post report, said the US government assumes all companies in a non-market economy like China are under the control of their government and applies a uniform dumping margin across the board.