Pencil Importer Loses Antidumping Duty Evasion Legal Challenge

A U.S. importer lost its challenge to a determination that it unlawfully skirted duties on Chinese pencils, after a federal trade court accepted U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s new explanation for its ruling.

The U.S. maintains antidumping duties on certain cased pencils from China. U.S. pencil manufacturer Dixon Ticonderoga Co. alleged that importer Royal Brush Manufacturing Inc. was evading these duties by shipping Chinese pencils through the Philippines.

CBP investigated and concluded that Royal Brush’s Philippine shipper’s volume of exports to the U.S. exceeded its production capacity, among other findings. The department issued an affirmative evasion determination, subjecting Royal Brush’s ...