Univar shells out $62.5 million for antidumping evasion

   The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday said Univar USA, based in Downers Grove, Ill., agreed to pay $62.5 million to settle allegations that it imported 36 shipments of Chinese-origin saccharin that were transshipped through Taiwan between 2007 and 2012 to avoid a 329 percent antidumping duty.
   The transshipments resulted in the evasion of about $36 million in antidumping duties by Univar, the Justice Department said.
   The settlement resolves a lawsuit brought in the U.S. Court of International Trade seeking recovery of unpaid antidumping duties and penalties totaling $84 million plus interest. In that action, the government alleged that Univar was “grossly negligent or negligent” in failing to determine that its supplier in Taiwan was not a manufacturer but, instead, imported saccharin into Taiwan from China for transshipment to the United States. 
   The recovery is considered the largest amount reached under 19 U.S. Code, section 1592 in the Court of International Trade.