|
 The employees worked at a Chinese unit of Marubeni's Columbia Grain,
Inc, a spokesman at the trading company said. He added he did not
know why they had been detained. He also said he did not know the
nationalities of the employees.
The detentions may signal further complications in strained
relations between Japan and China. Japan's Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd
<9104.T> has paid almost $40 million to Chinese claimants, stemming
from a wartime claim after the seizure of one of its ships by a
court in Shanghai, media in Japan said on Thursday.
The seizure of a Mitsui bulk carrier set off alarm bells in Japan
and the country's top government spokesman warned this week it may
damage Japanese business in China.
The probe into Marubeni's China unit comes nearly a year after
investigators raided GlaxoSmithKline's <GSK.L> offices in China and
detained four senior executives on suspicion of bribery and tax
fraud.
It also comes amid escalating tensions between China and Japan over
a chain of uninhabited islands both countries claim, after the
Japanese government purchased them from private owners in 2012.
Japanese companies are switching investment from China to Southeast
Asia amid the tensions.
One of the Marubeni staff being held is Zhang Wenjing, a trading
executive with Columbia Grain, following tip-offs that the company
was evading taxes for soybean shipments sold to a crusher in the
province, two trade sources told Reuters.
"Zhang was investigated by customs authorities. The customs received
a tip-off that the company was suspected of evading taxes and
smuggling by using provisional prices," said one trade source, who
has close business dealings with the company.
Another industry source said Zhang and her colleagues were held by
customs authorities in the city of Qingdao in Shandong province. He
could not identify Zhang's colleagues.
One official at Columbia's Shenzhen office reached by Reuters said
Zhang was not available and declined to comment when asked if Zhang
was detained.
The Columbia office in Dalian said none of its traders were detained
and said Zhang could still be contacted. However, Zhang did not
answer phone calls made to her mobile phone on Wednesday.
[to top of second column] |
DECLARED CARGO VALUE
Sources said the allegations of tax evasion were related to
discrepancies on the reported valuation of imported soybean cargoes,
which would affect customs duty and value-added tax (VAT) since both
are levied based on the cargo values.
Such discrepancies are a common occurrence in commodity trade,
including soybeans, as sellers typically offer Chinese buyers a
delayed pricing mechanism that allows importers to place orders
based on a preliminary price.
This provisional pricing would be used to calculate cargo value when
making customs declarations.
Buyers are then able to fix prices based on futures prices on the
Chicago Board of Trade when cargoes arrive in China or as late as a
month after their arrival. This final price would be the actual
valuation of the cargo.
Since U.S. soy prices have risen by more than 12 percent so far in
the year, both parties may have under-reported the actual value of
the cargo, said the trade source.
China's customs authority is familiar with the practice of delayed
pricing in commodities trade and has provisions in place allowing
companies to adjust the declared cargo value, industry sources said.
"Delayed pricing has been widely used in the industry, we don't know
how serious customs authorities will be in handling the case this
time," said the source.
Chinese buyers have threatened to default on more than 20 cargoes to
avoid incurring huge losses in a depressed local market.
Chinese buyers have not priced most of these cargoes.
(Writing by Aaron Sheldrick and Fayen Wong;
editing by Alex
Richardson)
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