by The government is not only continuing to keep tabs on tariffs, but also duties owed in antidumping cases
NORFOLK, Va. — A recent U.S. Customs seizure of a shipment of kitchen cabinets from China shows the importance of correctly labeling and identifying the contents of each container.
This is particularly important during a time when the U.S. government is still imposing and collecting duties and/or tariffs on certain products whether they are furniture or cabinetry.
The situation occurred on May 18, as U.S. Customs and Border Protection was inspecting a container whose contents were identified as 10 kitchen cabinets valued at $500. The manifest also showed the container had 691 other products such as metal ornaments and home decorations, storage boxes and decorative panels.
However, a closer look showed that these items were not on the container. In their place were 781 cartons of kitchen cabinets that were subject to antidumping and countervailing duties. Antidumping duties are imposed on products that the government believes are being sold below fair market values. Countervailing duties aim to address unfair pricing tactics resulting from foreign government subsidies of manufacturing facilities.
It’s a familiar refrain for imports of Chinese-made wooden bedroom that have been subject to antidumping duties since early 2005. The government’s stance is that it will not tolerate the evasion of duties that are in place to help level the playing field resulting from unfair trade or foreign subsidization of factories that cause injury for U.S. manufacturers.
Readers may remember how in late 2015 University Furnishings and business partner Freedom Furniture Group, both part of University Furnishings, agreed to pay $15 million to resolve a lawsuit brought under the False Claims Act. The lawsuit alleged the companies made or conspired with others to make false statements to avoid paying duties on Chinese-made wooden bedroom furniture.
While they sold furniture for student housing under the University Furnishings banner, the case had big implications for other importers of residential furniture that attempt to evade duties, whether it’s through mislabeling or by transhipping products from another country that doesn’t have duties.
In the University Furnishings case in particular, the government found that between 2009 and 2012, the company mislabeled the wooden bedroom furniture as office furniture or other types of furniture to avoid paying duties.
More recently, the American Furniture Manufacturers Committee for Legal Trade — the group of petitioners that filed the original antidumping case against China in 2003 — filed a complaint against USA Sourcing and Tradewide Inc. for alleged evasion of duties on wooden bedroom furniture from China. Here, too, they alleged the importers misclassified the bedroom furniture as merchandise not covered by the antidumping order, which they said resulted in failure to pay cash deposits associated with the order. On May 12, 2025, U.S. Customs began an investigation into the case, which appears to be ongoing.
In the case of the recently seized kitchen cabinets, which had an estimated value of $123,554, the government is also sending a clear message: Duty evasion through misclassification will not be allowed under any circumstance.
“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.”
Most importers of record, including retailers, obviously know the rules and play by those rules. However, they also need to clearly communicate with source factories that they also must play by the rules and not misidentify or misclassify products they are shipping. Customs brokers along with sourcing agents also can help make sure that shipments are labeled correctly.
In either case, the importer of record — whether it’s a furniture wholesaler or retailer buying direct — will end up paying the duty if a product is found to be mislabeled. But it also could face penalties and fines for any type of duty evasion determined by the U.S. government.
In an age where duties and tariffs remain in place for the foreseeable future, these are added costs that nobody wants to have to pay.
Great story.