CBP announced an Enforce and Protect Act (EAPA) investigation on whether Ebuy Enterprises and Highland USA International evaded an antidumping duty order on xanthan gum from China. The agency said it found reasonable suspicion existed that the importers had transshipped Chinese-origin xanthan gum through Malaysia, necessitating the imposition of interim measures.
Moving manufacturing from China to another Asian country is not the way to "get ahead of the game" in avoiding forced labor detentions, said Amanda Levitt, a Sandler Travis lawyer, while speaking during a virtual Sourcemap conference on supply chain transparency. Levitt said that tracing falls apart for most firms at the Tier 2 level, and that's not enough. Many of the items identified by nongovernmental organizations as being produced with Uyghur forced labor -- cotton, aluminum, PVC -- are raw materials much deeper than tier 2.
Even though thousands of CBP employees will be required to work without pay to clear cargo in the case of a government shutdown on Sunday, importers are preparing for problems, since they have experienced them in previous shutdowns.
CBP determined there is substantial evidence that LTT International Trading Co. evaded antidumping and countervailing duty orders on quartz surface products from China (A-570-084/C-570-085). CBP said transshipped the covered merchandise through Taiwan and declared that the entries of Chinese-origin quartz surface products were of Taiwan origin, CBP said in its Sept. 12 evasion notice. LTT repeatedly missed opportunities to potentially disprove the allegation and to rebut the evidence on the record, CBP said.
CBP posted to its website two new “quick reference cards” on Enforce and Protect Act antidumping and countervailing duty evasion investigations. The first “describes the best practices associated” with filing EAPA evasion allegations with CBP. The second provides a detailed timeline for EAPA investigations “when an allegation reasonably suggests that there is evidence” of evasion.
A CBP Enforce and Protect Act (EAPA) investigation found that Superior Commercial Solutions engaged in evasion by undervaluation and/or transshipment through Vietnam when it imported quartz surface products covered by antidumping and countervailing duty orders.
Lionshead Specialty Tire and Wheel, TexTrail and TRAILSTAR evaded antidumping and countervailing duty orders on imported steel trailer wheels from China, CBP concluded in the results of a recently released Enforce and Protect Act (EAPA) investigation. CBP found that the three importers had entered steel wheels using false statements that they didn't contain covered merchandise even though the importers contended that they believed the wheels were out of scope.
The Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force (FLETF) violated the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to provide any rationale for adding Chinese printer cartridge manufacturer Ninestar Corp., along with eight of its Zhuhai-based subsidiaries, to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) Entity List, the companies, led by Ninestar, argued (Ninestar Corp., et al. v. U.S., CIT # 23-00182).
Correction: Importer YVC USA told CBP in the course of an Enforce and Protect Act (EAPA) investigation that it was unaware that its Chinese supplier was conducting an evasion scheme by transshipping Chinese-origin forged steel fittings through Sri Lanka (see 2308220028).
An importer of forged steel fittings told CBP it was never aware its Chinese supplier was participating in a scheme to transship forged steel fittings, covered by antidumping and countervailing duty orders, from China through Sri Lanka, yet CBP concluded its Enforce and Protect Act (EAPA) investigation with the determination that the importer, YVC USA, had evaded the duties, according to a recently posted notice.