Customs and Border Protection Finds Evidence that Importers Evaded Antidumping and Countervailing Duties on Ribbon Imports and Announces the Initiation of Formal Investigations under the Enforce and Protect Act

WASHINGTON (February 2025) - In a positive development for U.S. ribbon manufacturers, the U.S. Department of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has found evidence that importers of narrow woven ribbons with woven selvedge (NWR) have evaded payment of tariffs in violation of existing antidumping and countervailing duty orders.

The allegations, brought under the Enforce and Protect Act (EAPA), alleged that importers were evading duty payments on imports of NWR that were manufactured in China and transshipped through India, falsely claiming the country of origin as India.

CBP has found that evidence reasonably suggests that duty evasion has occurred, and it announced the initiation of its formal investigations, which will now continue through the final phase. Upon an affirmative final determination of evasion, the importers will be accountable for unpaid duties on entries of NWR imported in violation of the existing antidumping and countervailing duty orders to the full extent provided under EAPA. A final determination is expected later this year. “This is good news for the domestic ribbons industry,” said Daniel B. Pickard, lead counsel at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, “importers should not be allowed to get away with evasion of duty payments. This determination is a step in the right direction to ensuring a continued level playing field for an industry that has already suffered significant harm by reason of unfairly low-priced imports.”

Antidumping and countervailing duty orders on imports of NWR from China and Taiwan have been in place since 2010 and help ensure fair trading practices for the domestic industry. The U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) alongside the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) in 2022 determined in a sunset review of the orders that revocation would likely lead to continuation or recurrence of dumping and net countervailable subsidies, causing material injury to a domestic industry in the United States.

Even though Commerce and the ITC already determined that imports of NWR from China were causing material harm to the domestic industry and enacted the antidumping and countervailing duty orders, evasion of duty payments can unfortunately still occur.  EAPA was enacted in 2016 to ensure that interested parties have an avenue to submit allegations against importers of evasion of antidumping and countervailing duty payments.

Buchanan’s team of international trade and national security attorneys, has decades of experience supporting clients to ensure that the U.S. market is operating under fair and equal conditions through various trade remedies, including through the Enforce and Protect Act.