WASHINGTON – The Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA) today released a statement on final determination of evasion of antidumping and countervailing duties against a Chinese importer. The US Customs Agency, through the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“Customs”), issued a final affirmative determination under the Enforce and Protect Act (“EAPA”) that the U.S. importer Vanguard Trading Company LLC (“Vanguard”) is guilty of evading the antidumping and countervailing duties (“AD/CVD”) on quartz surface products from China through its imports of “Lucciare” branded products.
On June 14, 2023, Customs determined that Vanguard was illegally classifying Chinese quartz surface products by describing the merchandise as “artificial marble” and/or “artificial stone” when its merchandise should be described as quartz surface products. Customs found that Vanguard was importing these products from Foshan Monica Quartz Stone Co. Ltd. and four other Chinese suppliers. Vanguard has been marketing the products under the brand “Lucciare.” As part of the marketing under the Lucciare brand, Vanguard has claimed that the merchandise is a new “FriTech” material made from “fritted sand” that is different from quartz surface products because it is made predominantly of “silicates” rather than “silica.” However, the evidence developed during the EAPA investigation shows that the imported merchandise is composed predominantly of silica and thus falls squarely within the scope of the AD/CVD orders on quartz surface products from China.
Customs initiated the EAPA investigation after a group of US domestic quartz manufacturers submitted an allegation to the agency in July 2021. The allegation substantiated details of Vanguard’s attempts to evade the AD/CVD orders through its illegal misclassification scheme. During the course of its EAPA investigation, Customs provided multiple opportunities for Vanguard and its five Chinese suppliers to provide additional information clarifying the nature of the “Lucciare” or “FriTech” merchandise. However, Vanguard and the Chinese suppliers failed to cooperate by refusing to respond to Customs’ requests for information. As a result, Customs applied adverse inferences against the companies in reaching its final determination of evasion.
CPA, which represents U.S. domestic producers and advocates for free and fair trade throughout the United States, issued a statement strongly supporting the findings by Customs.
“The ruling by Customs reinforces that U.S. trade laws, as well as strict enforcement, are critical in ensuring that U.S. consumers are protected from yet another importer of inferior Chinese quartz attempting to illegally evade AD/CVD duties,” said Michael Stumo, CEO CPA. “Equally important, robust enforcement of U.S. trade law, including AD/CVD orders, ensures that U.S. domestic manufacturers, and the millions of American workers they employ, are not undercut by predatory and illegal trade activity by foreign governments and competitors.”
Because of the affirmative EAPA determination, Vanguard will have to pay the applicable AD/CVD duties on all its imports of quartz surface products that were subject to the investigation. These duties exceed 300% for almost all Chinese suppliers. In addition, Customs will apply a heightened level of scrutiny to any of Vanguard’s imports in the future to ensure it does not continue engaging in illegal evasion schemes. These enforcement actions do not preclude Customs or other agencies from pursuing additional enforcement actions or penalties against Vanguard.
Members of the US domestic quartz manufacturers (Quartz Council) will continue to stand strong for the domestic industry in numerous other trade proceedings, including challenging the final results of the first administrative review of the AD order on quartz surface products (QSP) from India. In that review, the U.S. Department of Commerce collapsed to the pressure of a coordinated political and press campaign orchestrated by U.S. importers of QSP from India. When calculating the dumping rate for 53 Indian exporters, the Commerce Department pulled forward an old rate of 3.19% instead of adhering to the statute and the case law, which would have resulted in a dumping margin of 161.56%.
About The Quartz Council
The Quartz Council is a consortium of producers of quartz surface products from across North America. The Quartz Council was established to align industry best practices in the manufacturing, and safe production of quartz surface products across North America, and to ensure free and fair trade for domestic US quartz manufacturers. Quartz is a widely regarded and popular product manufactured and fabricated throughout the United States for use in kitchen and bathroom surfaces, fireplace surrounds, and in corporate and residential environments.
About CPA
CPA is the only national organization representing exclusively domestic producers across many sectors. We are a bipartisan coalition of manufacturers, farmers, ranchers, and labor organizations that make and grow things in the United States. American jobs, strength, and well being are built and sustained by growing America’s productive capacity. We value quality employment, national security, and domestic self- sufficiency over cheap consumption.
