U.S. Investigating Thailand Transshipping
WASHINGTON – Federal officials are continuing an investigation into possible transshipping of Chinese-made quartz surfaces through Thailand to eight U.S. importers.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) found “reasonable suspicion that the importers may have engaged in evasion” of high unfair-trade tariffs imposed on quartz surfaces from China.
The federal agency announced last month that it will continue the inquiry and, in the interim, restrict completion of the import process on shipments made after initial allegations.
The action comes after formal complaints made by U.S. quartz-surface manufacturer Cambria Company LLC under the federal Enforce and Protection Act (EAPA).
While all the accusations are based on evading the roughly 300% to 400% duties imposed by the 2019 U.S. International Trade Commission action on Chinese quartz -surfaces, the CBP consolidated them into two combined cases.
One case involves the Thailand-based company of Elite Stonetech and four U.S. importers: U.S Atlanta International Inc. in Buford, Ga.; Global Source & Supply Inc. of Cary, N.C.; Cosmos Granite (East) LLC of Raleigh, N.C.; and Cosmos Granite (West) LLC in Kent, Wash.
CBP’s initial investigation found evidence to doubt that Elite Stonetech manufactured the quartz surfaces in question. The agency cited the timing of shipments and apparent significant ownership of the company by Chinese quartz manufacturers, and also questioned if the surfaces factory existed.
The other case centered around shipments by Thailand-based Thai Summit Stone Co. Ltd. (TSS) to four other U.S. importers: Broadcreek Marketing Associates Inc. of Cerritos, Calif.; Dorado Surfaces LLC of Denver; Kingka Cabinet Inc. of East Brunswick, N.J., and Multistone Enterprises Inc. of Savannah, Ga. The TSS inquiry also centered on shipment timing and ownership by Chinese quartz manufacturers, among other issues.
With both cases, CBP also requested a packet of information from each importer, including, among other items, payment and transportation documents; a list of raw materials (including invoices received by the manufacturers and receipt of materials);a list (with photos) of all production machinery and equipment; and a list of the manufacturers’ employees.
Five of the eight companies (Cosmos East, Global Source, Broadcreek Marketing, Dorado Surfaces, and Kingka Cabinet) complied with CBP’s request to varying degrees. However, the federal agency determined that none of them supplied sufficient information to tie imported materials to manufacturing in Thailand.
CBP’s initial action is to suspend liquidation, or set aside finalization, of surfaces received after certain dates specific to each case. That means the importers could be assessed the high Chinese-quartz-surface tariffs for those goods, plus any other penalties and fees, after final determinations by the federal agency.
