The International Home Furnishings Market opened yesterday under a cloud of uncertainty, with many manufacturers and retailers apprehensive about how economic, global and industry issues are affecting consumer confidence.

The market, held in downtown High Point, will run through Wednesday and is closed to the public.

High gas prices, job insecurity, the war in Iraq, the presidential election, severe weather and mounting consumer debt contributed to sluggish retail sales leading up to market, officials said.

Adding to the uncertainty is an anti-dumping investigation being conducted by two federal agencies that could put hefty duties on wooden-bedroom furniture made by Chinese manufacturers.

The Furniture Retailers of America, a coalition of big-box and small retailers and a few manufacturers, held a rally at market encouraging members to lobby federal officials and congressional representatives to limit, if not eliminate, the duties.

"In these next weeks, we need to make our opinion and our stance known publicly, legally and politically," said Michael Veitenheimer, a vice president and general counsel for the Bombay Co. "We're fighting an uphill battle to have the case treated fairly."

The coalition said that the duties would not bring jobs back to the United States, but would mean higher furniture prices for U.S. consumers and hurt retailers.

The investigation began in December after a group of 31 U.S. manufacturers - the American Furniture Manufacturers Committee for Legal Trade - filed a petition with the U.S. Commerce Department and International Trade Commission. The petition asked the agencies to determine whether Chinese wooden-bedroom furniture was being dumped onto the U.S. market at artificially low prices.

A preliminary ruling by the commerce department resulted in duties averaging 12.9 percent being levied against about 110 manufacturers, which represent more than 80 percent of the wooden-bedroom pieces imported to the U.S. market. A final ruling is expected Nov. 8.

Analysts said that duties could be raised because the commerce department could not verify the audit of Tech Lane, one of the seven Chinese manufacturers that it selected for the investigation.

Analysts said that the investigation has served to accelerate the consolidation pace of wooden-furniture manufacturing in China. The manufacturers subjected to the highest duties of 198 percent are moving into product lines not facing duties, and those bearing the lowest duties are gaining extra business.

Doug Bassett, a spokesman for the manufacturers' group, said that the retailer group's goal was to stop the investigation.

"Now that the investigation has entered the top of the ninth, they are sensing that the duties could go significantly higher and they are lobbying to keep that from happening," Bassett said.

"It's unfortunate that they continue to stand up for what has been determined, at least preliminarily, as illegally dumped wooden-bedroom furniture into the United States."