Univar USA Inc. pays a $62.5 million customs penalty for circumvention of antidumping duties
On 9 April 2019 the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Department of Justice announced that Univar USA Inc. (Univar) has agreed to pay a $62.5 million customs penalty to the United States. Between 2007 and 2012 Univar, a subsidiary of Illinois-based Univar Inc., imported 36 shipments of saccharin from China via Taiwan. Although this saccharin was manufactured in China, it was transshipped through Taiwan in order to evade a 329 percent antidumping duty on saccharin from China (equivalent to approximately $36 million in antidumping duties).
In this settlement Univar was allegedly “grossly negligent or negligent” in determining that its saccharin was not manufactured by its supplier in Taiwan, but in China. This settlement resolves the U.S. Court of International Trade lawsuit which seeks the recovery of unpaid antidumping duties and penalties under 19 U.S.C. § 1592.
Please follow the links below to read press releases from the authorities:
