Industry-Wide CEEs Expansion Planned for FY16, CBP Pursuing $100 Million Solar Panel Duty Evasion Case

CBP will look to expand the full industry coverage for the other seven Centers of Excellence and Expertise within fiscal year 2016, Lori Whitehurst, acting director of the Trade Operations Division at CBP. "We're in a really good position to start making some decisions and maybe setting upcoming goals for our seven centers," she said May 27 at the West Coast Trade Symposium in Tacoma, Washington. The first three CEEs to handle entire industries -- electronics in Los Angeles, pharmaceuticals and chemicals in New York, and petroleum and minerals in Houston (see 1501210021) -- will be fully operational by the beginning of July, said Whitehurst. Following a review of how well the transition went in the initial three CEEs, CBP hopes to use those lessons to speed up the future expansions, she said.

Through the CEEs, CBP is using a new centralized approach to antidumping duty enforcement that helped identify one case that may involve some $100 million in evaded solar panel duties, said Anne Maricich, director of the Electronics CEE. While the agency previously looked at solar panel production records for proof of dumping order evasion, CBP has since added some new components, she said. CBP now uses a "national" approach, with one team focused on the antidumping cases that works closely with the domestic industry for insight on what falls within and outside the scope of the order, she said. "They've started doing some physical examinations" and found that "what's inside the box, as it's imported, doesn't always line up with the paperwork that's with it."

Maricich said CBP now has a case "against one importer, three different ports of entry, and we're finding that there was a great potential that they've evaded at least $100 million worth of antidumping duties, just for the solar panels piece alone." CBP is "challenging some of the importers that think they fall outside of the scope of the order and not paying the duties," said an agency spokeswomen in response to a request for more information on the solar panel enforcement case. There's "several open cases in various ports with possible evasion of anti-dumping duties as high as $100 million," she said.

That national approach includes patent enforcement work and International Trade Commission exclusion orders, said Maricich. The Electronics CEE has meant improved "field level enforcement" so the agency can address the issues at the port of entry, she said. The CEE now works "very closely" with the complainants and the respondents to "understand what the ITC exclusion order says," she said. "We've actually worked with many respondents and helped them get to a point where they've got a redesigned product where they're allowed to bring that in." That means CBP doesn't have to spend the time examining and excluding shipments, she said.