On behalf of the Ad Hoc Shrimp Trade Action Committee (“AHSTAC”), an association of domestic producers of warmwater shrimp, PKR today filed a brief at the U.S. Court of International Trade defending the U.S. Department of Commerce in the seventh administrative review of the antidumping duty order on shrimp from India. Commerce found that an Indian shrimp exporter was responsible for “targeted dumping” after identifying a pattern of U.S. sales prices that differed significantly among purchasers, regions, or periods. To address this concern, Commerce employed an alternative method of calculating antidumping duties that excluded sales above normal value through “zeroing.”
The Indian Plaintiffs argued that Commerce is prohibited from addressing targeted dumping in administrative reviews. AHSTAC today countered that Commerce not only has such authority, but an affirmative statutory obligation to counteract that injurious sales behavior. AHSTAC supported Commerce’s targeted dumping analysis that resulted in all but two Indian companies being assigned a 3.49% margin. One CIT judge has already found that Commerce can address targeted dumping in reviews and the issue may be destined for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which recently affirmed Commerce’s ability to use zeroing in reviews.
