Legal Filings

Zeroing

The Southern Shrimp Alliance continues to be the only organization defending the antidumping duties against efforts to remove or reduce them.  The U.S. Department of Commerce recently issued a preliminary determination indicating that the antidumping order on shrimp imports from Ecuador would be revoked in response to a decision by the Appellate Body of the WTO.  The United States Trade Representative, however, has stated that the Appellate Body’s decision is without legal basis, explaining “A prohibition of zeroing, or a requirement to provide offsets for non-dumped transactions, simply cannot be found in the text of the AD Agreement.”  The Southern Shrimp Alliance recently submitted comments challenging Commerce’s preliminary determination.  No other comments were submitted defending the antidumping order by any other party.  A copy of this submission can be accessed through the link below.

6/18/07 Case Brief on 129(Use of Zeroing)

Second Administrative Reviews

The Southern Shrimp Alliance has been very active defending the shrimp antidumping duties in the second administrative review process.  Below are public copies of the filings that SSA has made on numerous issues that will effect the outcome of the second administrative reviews, such as how to select the exporters subject to the review, the selection of comparison markets that will be used to determine the level of dumping in our market, and whether the written responses of exporters to government inquiries should be verified through on-site visits by Commerce officials.  No other party filed any comments in support of the domestic industry with regard to these fundamental issues.  Our goals in the administrative review process are to ensure that the full measure of dumping is addressed by Commerce and to improve the market for the U.S. shrimp industry.

On February 28, 2007, another group purporting to represent the domestic industry, the Louisiana Shrimp Association (LSA) filed administrative reviews requests for hundreds of companies with the U.S. Department of Commerce.  LSA’s broad administrative review requests prevent the collection and distribution of virtually all antidumping duties until at least after the completion of a full administrative review process.  Further, by requesting reviews of exporters that the Southern Shrimp Alliance has preliminarily won significant antidumping duty increases on in the first administrative review, LSA is providing some exporters with the possibility of lowering their antidumping duty rates — a possibility that would not otherwise exist but for LSA’s requests.  Thus far, LSA has declined to present any substantive argumentation in support of issues that would assist in capturing the full measure of dumping by foreign exporters, nor has LSA rebutted any arguments made by foreign exporters.  Although Commerce set a June 13, 2007 deadline for the submission of comments on how exporters would be selected for review, LSA failed to submit any argumentation on behalf of the domestic industry.  As such, although LSA has justified its massive requests based on the contention that it could achieve higher antidumping duty rates through its own litigation of the administrative reviews, LSA has taken no action to defend the orders.  LSA’s interference in these proceedings and its subsequent failure to defend the antidumping orders threatens to diminish the antidumping duties collected and distributed to the domestic industry, to the detriment of our industry and the benefit of foreign exporters.

Samples of Latest SSA Filings at the Department of Commerce

6/22/07 Supplemental Comments on Respondent Selection
6/18/07 Supplemental Third-Country Selection Comments
6/14/07 Comments on Respondent Selection (Ecuador)
6/14/07 Comments on Respondent Selection (India)
6/14/07 Comments on Respondent Selection (Thailand)
6/14/07 Comments on Respondent Selection (Vietnam)
6/13/07 Verification Request
6/6/07 Rebuttal Third-Country Selection Comments
5/22/07 Objection to Respondent Selection
5/9/07 Comments on Third-Country Selection
4/5/07 Duty Absorption Request

First Administrative Reviews

SSA has been very successful in protecting the interests of the U.S. shrimp industry through the administrative review process, which has the potential to increase or decrease the antidumping duties ultimately collected on shrimp from Brazil, Ecuador, China, India, Thailand, and Vietnam.

A substantial majority of the companies subject to the first administrative review will be assessed antidumping duties equal to or greater than the antidumping duty deposits made by importers if the preliminary determinations are made final in August.

The vast majority of the volume of shrimp imports subject to antidumping duties from each country except China was not subject to administrative review due to more than100 negotiated settlements of the litigation.  Companies that evaluated their risks and costs with their legal counsel approached SSA to determine if a settlement could be reached.

How did the settlements negotiated by SSA help the U.S. shrimp industry?

  1. They expedited the distribution of more than $100 million to the U.S. shrimp industry under the Byrd Amendment.  (None of the Byrd Amendment monies went to the SSA.)
  2. They reduced the Southern Shrimp Alliance’s cost and risk of litigation while adding stability to the U.S. shrimp market.
  3. They provided information that identifies companies that have engaged intransshipment of product through duty-free countries and supports the need for greater FDA testing for illegal substances on imported shrimp.
  4. Finally, financial elements of the settlements paid by shrimp exporters provided SSA with the resources to fund a wide range of initiatives, from research to litigation to marketing, that create a better market for U.S. shrimp.