China Wax Candles: Cherub Figurines Subject to AD Duties; Cherubs Aren't Deities, Commerce Says
Jay Import Company’s candles that are shaped like cherubs are subject to antidumping duties on petroleum wax candles from China (A-570-504), said the Commerce Department Aug. 27 in a final scope ruling. Although the scope of the AD duty order excludes “figurine” candles shaped like deities, cherubs are not deities because they are not “supremely good or powerful,” Commerce said.
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Jay Import said its four types of candles shaped like cherubs fall within an exclusion that Commerce created in 2011 for birthday candles, utility candles, and figurine candles (see 11080221). The “figurine exception” from the China wax candles order includes candles in the shape of a “human, animal, or deity.” A deity is “one exalted or revered as supremely good or powerful,” and as a “celestial immortal being recognized in the form of a winged child and honored and respected in many religions as God’s messenger,” the cherubs qualify is deities, Jay Import said.
Commerce disagreed, because cherubs don’t meet Jay Import’s own definition of a deity as “supremely good or powerful.” And the definition for deity doesn’t include any reference to a cherub or angel. The four cherub candles are “either human nor deity because: (1) humans do not have wings; and (2) an angel or cherub does not rise to the level of a deity per the dictionary definition provided by Jay Import,” Commerce said. So the cherub candles don’t meet an exception, and are subject to AD duties under the China petroleum wax candles order, said the agency.
On the other hand, Commerce ruled a fifth type of candle in the form of a goat is not subject to AD duties, because it falls within the scope’s exception for animal figurines.
Email ITTNews@warren-news.com for a copy of this scope ruling.