Washington, DC - U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued a notice of interim measures on Monday to importer, Ceka Nutrition, Inc., in its ongoing Enforce and Protect Act (EAPA) investigation concerning the evasion of the antidumping duty order for glycine from The People’s Republic of China. CBP found a reasonable suspicion that Ceka Nutrition was entering glycine that had been transshipped from China through Cambodia.

“CBP is committed to aggressively pursuing allegations that we receive of duty evasion with all of the available legal tools we have at our disposal, as we did in this case,” said Acting Commissioner Kevin McAleenan. “Through partnering with the trade community in combatting evasion, CBP can work to level the playing field for U.S. businesses by facilitating legitimate trade, while penalizing and deterring the violators of U.S. trade laws. To that end, I encourage those with knowledge of evasion of our trade laws to file an allegation with CBP.”

CBP has taken the following interim measures against Ceka Nutrition:

• Requiring “live” entry for all imports of glycine, meaning Ceka Nutrition must submit proper import documentation and duties prior to the release of its merchandise;
• Implementing rate adjustments for all unliquidated entries of merchandise subject to this investigation to reflect that they are subject to the antidumping duty order;
• Suspending or extending unliquidated entries of glycine, as appropriate;
• Rejecting any entry summaries that fall within the entry summary reject period; as well as,
• Reviewing Ceka Nutrition’s continuous bond and application of single transaction bonds for it, as appropriate.

As a result of implementing EAPA interim measures, CBP halts the potential evasion of several million dollars’ worth of antidumping duties annually. The antidumping duty rate for goods subject to the China-wide rate for this order is 453 percent ad valorem.

GEO Specialty Chemicals, Inc., of Deer Park, Texas, filed an allegation on August 1 claiming that Ceka Nutrition was evading the antidumping duty order on glycine from China. Geo Specialty Chemicals is one of the largest U.S. producers of glycine, and a petitioner for the antidumping duty order on glycine from China. The allegation provided evidence that reasonably suggested that Ceka Nutrition had imported glycine that was transshipped by LG Chemicals Ltd. from China through Cambodia.

CBP requested detailed information from Ceka Nutrition regarding its foreign supplier, and conducted an on-site visit of the alleged foreign supplier in Cambodia to assess the validity of the information provided by Ceka Nutrition. At that site visit, CBP learned from employees who operated the supplier’s purported factory that the facility only further refined Chinese-origin glycine and did not produce it, thus rendering it subject to the antidumping duty order on glycine from China. Moreover, there was insufficient equipment, product, and employees on hand to support claims that the factory could produce the quantity that had been exported to the United States in the prior year, further supporting CBP’s determination that this glycine was transshipped from China through Cambodia. The notice of final determination in this investigation is due on July 2, 2018.