CBP Seizes Kitchen Cabinets ‘Clandestinely Imported’ From China

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said officers in Virginia seized a shipment of kitchen cabinets “clandestinely imported” from China to skirt customs duties.

CBP officers in Norfolk on May 18 inspected a shipping container with contents manifested as 10 kitchen cabinets with a declared value of $500, plus 691 other items including metal ornaments, home decorations, storage boxes, and decorative panels.

That’s not what the container held, however. Instead, officers found 781 cartons of kitchen cabinets. The mismanifested shipment, which was destined for an address in Los Angeles, was detained, and the trade experts at CBP’s Consumer Products and Mass Merchandising Center of Excellence and Expertise were notified.

The trade experts determined the kitchen cabinets, valued at $123,554, were subject to anti-dumping and countervailing duty laws, which promote “fair competition for U.S. manufacturers on dumped and subsidized imported goods.”

Investigators determined the kitchen cabinets were deliberately mismanifested for clandestine importation to evade customs duties. The shipment was seized on June 23.

“Customs and Border Protection’s trade enforcement mission is designed to help level the playing field for United States-based businesses against bad actors who attempt to gain advantage by deliberately underpricing their products shipped to the U.S. or who grossly undervalue the cost of those shipments to evade paying a fair duty,” said CBP Area Port Director Keri Brady, Area Port of Norfolk-Newport News. “CBP will continue to support economic fairness, protect domestic industry, and uphold the integrity of U.S. supply chains by targeting unfair trade practices and other schemes designed to cheat the system.”