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Trade fraud? Chinese-made cabinets or will face US government investigation
A few days ago, dozens of U.S. congressmen jointly sent a letter to relevant officials of the U.S. Department of Commerce and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, urging relevant U.S. departments to pay attention to and investigate the trade frauds taken by Chinese cabinet exporters to evade tariffs. To protect the normal development of the American cabinet industry and safeguard the interests of 250,000 employees.
In 2019, U.S. cabinet companies joined forces to request the U.S. Department of Commerce and the International Trade Commission to launch anti-dumping and countervailing investigations on wooden cabinets and bathroom cabinets imported from China. After about a year of investigation, preliminary ruling and final ruling process, from April this year, cabinets from China will face anti-dumping duties and countervailing duties ranging from 13.33% to 269.91% when entering the US market, with an average tax rate. Up to 58.89%.
However, representatives of the American cabinet industry stated that although the government’s measures to impose tariffs on Chinese imported cabinets have eased the operating pressure of domestic cabinet manufacturers to a certain extent, Chinese cabinet exporters have illegally transshipped and concealed the origin, etc. The act of evading tariffs has constituted trade fraud and undermined the level playing field in the domestic cabinet industry in the United States.
It is understood that since the trade conflict between China and the United States, some Chinese exporters have indeed taken risks and avoided U.S. tariffs by "borrowing through Southeast Asian countries" illegal re-export trade.
This practice is indeed a trade fraud. Once detected, the seller may face severe penalties. Moreover, the Southeast Asian countries that act as “tools” in this link may also be in a dangerous situation. There is evidence:
In June this year, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced an investigation into hardwood plywood assembled in Vietnam using Chinese components to determine whether it has circumvented the U.S. import tariffs imposed on China;
In October this year, the US government launched an investigation into Vietnam’s currency manipulation, which may cause Vietnam to face punitive tariffs.
