WASHINGTON, DC, July 8, 2025. The Anticircumvention Working Group (“AWG”) of the American Paper Plate Coalition (“APPC”), comprised of major American paper plate producers, today requested that the U.S. Department of Commerce (“Commerce”) conduct two investigations into circumvention of the antidumping (“AD”) and countervailing duty (“CVD”) trade laws by Chinese paper plate manufacturers and exporters.
In March 2025, Commerce imposed substantial AD and CVD duties on all imports of paper plates from China, Thailand, and Vietnam. These duties were imposed after the APPC petitioned Commerce for help in January 2024. Today’s filings come because, within weeks of Commerce starting the AD and CVD investigations, Chinese companies began moving paper plate finishing operations to Cambodia and Malaysia in order to circumvent the AD and CVD duties arising from those investigations.
In the circumvention inquiry requests, the AWG provides extensive evidence of circumvention, including public statements by Malaysian and Cambodian companies admitting that they moved paper plate production from China to circumvent the AD and CVD duties.
“Chinese companies are intentionally circumventing the United States trade laws to gain an unfair advantage in the marketplace,” said Robert Epstein, President and CEO of AWG and APPC member AJM Packaging Corporation. “Commerce already conducted five investigations and found that Chinese, Vietnamese, and Thai companies were dumping subsidized paper plates in the U.S. market. Yet here we are, just months after the cases were completed, forced to ask for circumvention investigations because Chinese companies are once again skirting the rules and exposing importers to duties that can be applied retroactively to July 2024.”
Under the U.S. trade laws, if Commerce finds that Malaysian and Cambodian producers are circumventing, Commerce may extend the China AD and CVD duties to cover those imports. Moreover, the AWG has asked Commerce to impose duties on Malaysian and Cambodian imports retroactively on circumventing imports, which Commerce has the power to do.
“This coalition of American paper plate producers is unwavering in its commitment to defending our markets, our companies, and the jobs of American workers,” said Adam H. Gordon of The Bristol Group PLLC, counsel to the AWG and APPC. “Chinese companies are deliberately shifting finishing operations to Cambodia and Malaysia in a transparent attempt to sidestep U.S. trade laws in to undercut American businesses and bypass the enforcement mechanisms that are supposed to protect them. Now and in the future, we will continue to use of the full force of the trade laws to expose and stop such schemes.”
Commerce has until August 7, 2025, to decide if it will initiate the requested circumvention inquiries.
About the Anticircumvention Working Group of the American Paper Plate Coalition
The Anticircumvention Working Group of the American Paper Plate Coalition, representing leading U.S. producers of paper plates, is comprised of AJM Packaging Corporation of Bloomfield Hills, MI; Aspen Products, Inc. of Kansas City, MO; Dart Container Corporation of Mason, MI; Hoffmaster Group, Inc. of Oshkosh, WI; and Unique Industries, Inc. of Philadelphia, PA.
For more information, visit https://www.ajmpack.com/; https://www.aspenpro.com/; https://www.dartcontainer.com/, https://www.hoffmaster.com/; and https://www.favors.com/.
The Anticircumvention Working Group of the American Paper Plate Coalition is represented by Adam H. Gordon, Esq. of The Bristol Group PLLC, a Washington, D.C. international trade law firm specializing in defending American industry, agriculture and jobs.
