Commerce Assigns 112.81% Rate to Uncooperative Exporters of Chinese Shrimp

Last Friday, the U.S. Department of Commerce published the Final Results of the eighth administrative review of the antidumping duty order on certain frozen warmwater shrimp from the People’s Republic of China, covering imports between February 2012 and January 2013.  Commerce assigned an antidumping duty rate of 112.81% to both shrimp exporters it reviewed – Hilltop International and Zhanjiang Newpro Foods, Ltd. – based on their lack of cooperation.  This outcome resulted from longstanding efforts by the Ad Hoc Shrimp Trade Action Committee (AHSTAC), an association of domestic shrimp producers represented by PKR, to ensure accountability for impropriety with respect to the AD order on shrimp from China.

Commerce assigned Hilltop the 112.81% rate for the fifth consecutive review, based on a March 2012 submission by AHSTAC suggesting that shrimp was transshipped through Cambodia.  Hilltop eventually acknowledged concealing the existence of its Cambodian affiliate, while refusing to answer Commerce inquiries regarding duty evasion.  Commerce’s assignment of the 112.81% rate was affirmed by the U.S. Court of International Trade in July 2014, and Hilltop is appealing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.  Commerce estimates that Hilltop has duty liability in excess of $100 million as a result of this concern raised by AHSTAC.