US fines Chinese firm for illegal supply to Pak N-plant

This firm has been fined $3.75 million by a US court in the District of Columbia — considered to be one of the highest penalties — as it violated stringent export restrictions of the US.

This latest episode comes amid growing concerns in the international community of the Chinese cooperation in building two more nuclear facilities in Pakistan — Chashma-3 and 4. The latest incident happened in Chashma-2,near Kundian in Pakistan’s Punjab province.

The company — PPG Paints Trading (Shanghai) Company Limited,a wholly-owned Chinese subsidiary of US-based PPG Industries — pleaded guilty on December 21 of conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and Export Administration Regulations.

The guilty plea stemmed from actions by the firm that caused the “illegal export,reexport and/or transshipment of high-performance coatings from the US to the Chashma 2 Nuclear Power Plant in Pakistan via a third-party distributor in the People’s Republic of China”,said the US Department of Justice.

Chashma-2,a plant under the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission,was added to the list of “prohibited users” after Pakistan conducted a nuclear test in November 1998.

As a restricted end-user,any US manufacturer seeking to export,reexport or transship any items subject to Export Administration Regulations would first need to obtain a licence from the Department of Commerce.

Between June 2006 and March 2007,the firm conspired to export high-performance PPG Industries’ coatings without having obtained the export licence from the Bureau of Industry and Security,the US statement said.

The firm got $32,319 for the illegal exports. It has now — in addition to paying a $2 million criminal fine and $1 million civil fine — forfeited the entire $32,319 to the government.