NORFOLK, Va. — U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seized over $120,000 in "unmanifested kitchen cabinets" in Norfolk on June 23 that agents say were clandestinely imported from China.

CBP officers initially inspected the shipping container on May 18. The contents were manifested as 10 kitchen cabinets, with a declared value of $500, and 691 other items such as metal ornaments, home decorations, storage boxes, and decorative panels. Officers discovered that none of those other declared items were in the container. Instead, officers found 781 cartons of kitchen cabinets.

CBP officers detained the mismanifested shipment, which was destined for an address in Los Angeles, and consulted trade experts at CBP’s Consumer Products and Mass Merchandising Center of Excellence and Expertise.

CBP’s trade experts determined that the cabinets were subject to anti-dumping and countervailing duty laws, which provide for fair competition for U.S. manufacturers on dumped and subsidized imported goods.

CBP officers determined that the kitchen cabinets were clandestinely imported merchandise that were deliberately mismanifested and undervalued to intentionally evade customs officials and duties. Officers seized the kitchen cabinets under 19 USC 1595a(c)(1)(A).

CBP’s trade experts appraised the cabinets at $123,554.

“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 an 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.”

Additionally, CBP officers seized 5,184 upholstered folding chairs in early June after the Consumer Product Safety Commission determined that the chairs violated the Flammable Fabrics Act. The chairs, which were appraised at about $35,000, were being shipped from China to addresses in Los Angeles. This was not CBP’s first brush with unsafe folding chairs. CBP officers seized another shipment of 2,600 upholstered folding chairs in April for also violating the Flammable Fabrics Act.