Chinese Pencil Importer Loses Legal Bid for Lower U.S. Duties

U.S. importer Prime Time Commerce LLC isn’t entitled to a lower U.S. duty rate on some entries of pencils from China, after the U.S. Court of International Trade rejected Tuesday a challenge to the rate’s calculation.

The U.S. maintains antidumping duties on cased pencils from China. The Commerce Department conducted a periodic duty review covering subject pencils that entered the U.S. between December 2015 and November 2016. The department concluded that exporter Ningbo Homey Union Co. had failed to prove its independence from the Chinese government. Its pencils were therefore hit with the “China-wide” duty rate of 114.9%.

Prime Time, ...