CBP Says Pipe Fittings Importer Didn't Evade Antidumping Duties

Importer Charman Manufacturing didn't evade antidumping duties on its malleable cast iron pipe fittings imported from China, CBP said in a July 5 determination. After looking into claims from Matco-Norca that Charman skirted the duties by transshipping the pipe fittings through Indonesia or Singapore, CBP said it didn't have substantial evidence proving these claims. The determination in the Enforce and Protect Act investigation is one of only a handful of times that CBP has come back with a negative evasion finding.

In May 2021, Matco-Norca alleged that Charman's Indonesian and Singaporean suppliers didn't have the capacity to make the volume of pipe fittings entered by the importer, and that there weren't any pipe fitting producers in either Hong Kong or Singapore. Matco-Norca procured evidence alleging that Charman's supplier in Singapore is a trading company and not a producer and that its pipe fittings are made in China and transshipped through Singapore.

CBP's Trade Remedy Law Enforcement Directorate (TRLED) visited the Singapore supplier, finding no evidence of manufacturing onsite. The agency in October 2021 imposed interim measures and formally started the EAPA investigation. In the proceeding, Charman said the pipe nipples imported by one of its suppliers were misclassified under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule, leading Charman to file a prior disclosure with CBP to correct the errors related the country of origin -- Indonesia -- of the pipe fittings.

In April 2022, CBP visited the production sites of two of Charman's suppliers in Indonesia. At that time, TRLED looked at the "manufacturing process, shipping labels, raw material sources, raw material and finished goods warehouses, the packaging process and interviewed company workers." The agency learned from the importer that the Singapore trading company was set up to facilitate sales to unnamed locations and that one of the Indonesian suppliers isn't a pipe fittings manufacturing firm since the supplier validates the production of pipes from China that are then cut and threaded into pipe nipples. This addressed allegations made by Matco-Norca on the Singapore company and one of the Indonesian manufacturing plants.

After the site visits in Indonesia, CBP said the Indonesian supplier had the capacity to make pipe fittings in the amount imported by Charman. Alleger Matco-Norca argued that by accepting untimely documents and granting extensions without a show of good cause, CBP carried out a "one-sided investigation" that stripped it of its procedural rights. Matco-Norca also argued it wasn't given adequate public summaries of confidential information. CBP said it accepted Charman's documents since it "was attempting to comply to the best of their ability, with CBP requests and there were certain failures in the CBP case system at the time."

CBP ultimately held that Charman did not evade the antidumping duties on pipe fittings from China. "Although there is certain information on the record from the Allegation and from documents subsequently placed on the record that suggest the possibility of evasion, collectively this information does not amount to 'substantial evidence' that the Importer’s imports of MCIP Fittings from Indonesia and Singapore during the period of investigation should have been entered as subject to the AD order on MCIP Fittings from China," the notice said.