International Trade Law News

In a stunning and unusual development, the United States hazelnut industry has withdrawn their antidumping petition on processed hazelnuts from Turkey. The antidumping petition, which alleged that processed hazelnuts from Turkey were sold at less than fair value in the United States was filed on October 21, 2003 by Westnut LLC, Northwest Hazelnut Co., Hazelnut Growers of Oregon, Willamette Filbert Growers, Evergreen Orchards and Evonuk Orchards.

In the letter submitted to the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) withdrawing the petition, counsel for the US hazelnut industry said that the petition was withdrawn due to concessions offered by the Government of Turkey. Specifically, the Government of Turkey offered the US hazelnut industry access to Turkey's hazelnut gene repository, increased funding of the U.S.-Turkey hazelnut marketing/promotion program and will not file any Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) petitions on hazelnuts.

The letter notes that the US hazelnut industry has been devastated by the Eastern Filbert Blight, a disease that kills hazelnut trees. Access to the gene depository in Turkey will allow the US hazelnut industry to develop trees that are disease resistant. The letter also states that the increased funding of the hazelnut promotion program will increase the demand in the US for consumption of hazelnuts which will eventually benefit the US hazelnut industry.

Interestingly, the letter sent to the ITC and DOC indicates that this antidumping petition was a warning to the Turkish producers of the "inappropriateness of injurious, dumped imports, and that, if they occur, aggressive action will be taken against them." The letter closed by stating that the US industry hopes "that it will not be necessary to send that message again."

The circumstances surrounding the withdrawal of this antidumping petition are highly unusual, as only a small number of antidumping petitions are voluntarily withdrawn by the parties submitting the petition.

Because hyperinflation is now under control in Turkey, the Turkish Parliament has approved a draft law to eliminate six zeros from the Turkish Lira (TL) starting in January 1, 2005. The draft law also indicates that the name of Turkey's monetary unit will be changed to the ''New Turkish Lira.'' ''Kurus'' will be the name of the sub-monetary unit of the new TL. One new TL will be equal to one million TL and one new TL will be equal to one hundred kurus. The draft law specifies that the new and old TL will be in circulation simultaneously between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2005.

The U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) announced that Emcore Corporation of Somerset, New Jersey has agreed to pay a $400,000 civil penalty to settle charges that it violated the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) in connection with exports of Metal Organic Vapor Disposition (MOCVD) tools to China and Taiwan. Exports of MOCVD tools to China and Taiwan are controlled for national security and anti-terrorism reasons.

BIS alleged that between 1998 and 2003, Emcore committed 71 violations of the EAR related to the export of MOCVD tools to China and Taiwan. BIS alleged that Emcore knowingly exported the MOCVD tools to consignees located in Taiwan without the required export licenses, illegally serviced the tools, failed to file Shippers Export Declarations (SEDs), and failed to retain certain export control documents. BIS also charged that between 2000 and 2003, Emcore made false statements to the U.S. government and violated conditions on export licenses that it had received for exports of MOCVD tools to consignees in China.

BIS said that Emcore voluntarily self-disclosed the violations and cooperated fully with the investigation.

Labels: BIS

The General Accounting Office (GAO) has recently issued a report addressing the enforcement of laws preventing illegal textile transshipments to the United States. The GAO report examined the efforts of the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in enforcing textile transshipment regulations. In the report, GAO noted that Customs will lose important authority to conduct inspections of foreign textile factories at the end of 2004, when quotas expire, even though transshipment will remain a threat because of preferential tariff rates for U.S. textile imports from some countries.

The report noted that in order to identify potential illegal textile transshipments to the United States, CBP targets countries, manufacturers, shipments, and importers that it determines to be at a higher risk for textile transshipment. CBP uses a targeting process that relies heavily on analyzing available trade data and other information to focus limited review and enforcement resources on the most suspect activity. In 2002, CBP targeted and selected for review about 2,500 textile and apparel shipments out of more than 3 million shipments it processed that year. CBP also targets importers based on high-risk activity, and conducts internal control audits that include verifying whether the importers have controls against transshipment. However, resource constraints limit the number of foreign factories and shipments that CBP can target and review annually to a small share of textile and apparel trade.

The U.S. Department of Commerce has announced that December 2003 steel imports declined 11 percent from November 2003 levels and were down 41 percent compared to December 2002.

The decrease from November to December 2003 was due primarily to a decrease in imports of blooms, billets, and slabs. December 2003 imports of finished steel products decreased 6 percent compared to November 2003, while imports of semi-finished steel fell 25 percent.

Overall, imports of steel mill products during all of 2003 were down 29 percent compared to the same period in 2002. Total 2003 imports of finished steel were down 23 percent compared to 2002, while imports of semi-finished steel were down 46 percent.

December 2003 imports of standard pipe decreased 23 percent compared to November 2003. December 2003 imports of standard pipe were down 12 percent compared to December 2002, and January to December 2003 imports of standard pipe were down 10 percent compared to the same period in 2002.

December 2003 imports of hot-rolled steel increased 35 percent from their November 2003 levels and were down 65 percent compared to December 2002 levels. January to December 2003 imports of hot-rolled steel were down 40 percent compared to the same period in 2002.

December 2003 imports of cold-rolled steel decreased 2 percent compared to November 2003 levels and were down 44 percent compared to December 2002 levels. January to December 2003 imports of cold-rolled steel were down 29 percent compared to the same period in 2002.

In less than three years, the United States has become one of Cuba's largest trading partners and Cuba's largest source of agricultural and food products. In 2003, the United States was Cuba's seventh largest trading partner and Cuba's fifth largest source of imports. As recently as 2000, US exports to Cuba were negligible.

The reason for the jump can be attributed to the enactment of the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000, which allowed food, agricultural and medical products to be exported to Cuba.

In 2003 Cuba imported more than 300 different US agricultural products, valued at $343.9 million. Soybeans, soy oil, corn, wheat, and rice were the largest exports from the United States to Cuba.

Cuba's largest import sources in 2003 were Venezuela, Spain, China, Italy and the United States. Cuba's ten largest trading partners in 2003 were Venezuela, Spain, China, Canada, the Netherlands, Italy, the United States, Mexico, France and Russia.

As a result of the recent passage of the Vision 100--Century of Aviation Reauthorization Act (Pub. L. 108-176, 117 Stat. 2490, December 12, 2003), the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are requiring all foreign air carriers to revise their Family Assistance Plans. Specifically, Vision 100 requires that Family Assistance Plans be resubmitted in their entirety with the following additional assurances:

(A) An assurance that, in the case of an accident that results in significant damage to a manmade structure or other property on the ground that is not government-owned, the foreign air carrier will promptly provide notice, in writing, to the extent practicable, directly to the owner of the structure or other property about liability for any property damage and means for obtaining compensation.

(B) At a minimum, the written notice shall advise a property owner (i) to contact the insurer of the property as the authoritative source for information about coverage and compensation; (ii) to not rely on unofficial information offered by foreign air carrier representatives about compensation by the foreign air carrier for accident-site property damage; and (iii) to obtain photographic or other detailed evidence of property damage as soon as possible after the accident, consistent with restrictions on access to the accident site.

In addition to the information set forth above, DOT and NTSB have requested that the Family Assistance Plan contain the updated 24-hour telephone number of the foreign air carrier's operations center for use in the event of an emergency.

The deadline for submission of revised Family Assistance Plans is March 11, 2004.

The Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has announced that in Fiscal Year 2003 the agency collected $24.7 billion in revenue, mainly in import duties and importation fees. This amount was nearly $1 billion more in revenue than in Fiscal Year 2002.

The value of imports into the United States for Fiscal Year 2003 totaled $1.2 trillion, anincrease over 2002, when imports into the U.S. were valued at $1.1 trillion.

The European Union (EU) is preparing to file a complaint at the World Trade Organization over the United States' practice of calculating dumping margins by zeroing negative dumping margins. The practice of setting negative dumping margins to zero typically increases the dumping margin calculated by the Commerce Department.

In a case filed by India against the EU involving bed-linen from India, the WTO's Appellate Body found that the practice of zeroing was a violation of the WTO Antidumping Agreement. See European Communities -- Antidumping Duties on Imports of Cotton-Type Bed Linen from India, WT/DS/141/AB/R (Mar. 1, 2001). The EU no longer uses the zeroing method in its dumping calculations and now claims that the US practice is inconsistent with the WTO Appellate Body's decision on this issue.

Many respondents in US antidumping investigations have unsuccessfully argued that the Commerce Department's practicing of zeroing violates US and international law. However, all challenges brought against this practice have been rejected by the Commerce Department and the US Courts. Indeed, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC), the highest US to render an opinion on this issue, recently affirmed the Commerce Department's practice of zeroing in The Timkin Co. v. United States, Slip. Op. 03-1098 (Fed. Cir. 2004). In Timkin, the CAFC found that "Commerce’s zeroing practice is a reasonable interpretation of the statutory language" and that "Commerce's methodology for calculating dumping margins makes practical sense." Moreover, the CAFC held that the Appellate Body's decision in Bed Linen from India was not binding.

Today the US Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration (ITA) published a notice in the Federal Register indicating that ITA is considering proposing regulations to govern its investigation of allegations of false statements to the agency during antidumping and countervailing duty proceedings and the imposition of sanctions
against those persons found to have certified and submitted false statements or engaged in any scheme to provide such statements.

The notice requests members of the bar who regularly practice before IA, as well as from interested members of the general public, to assist IA in determining whether to issue regulations pertaining to false statements and, if so, what those regulations should address. Comments on the ITA's proposal are due at ITA by March 26, 2004.

Today the U.S. Department of Commerce (the Department) announced its preliminary determinations in the antidumping duty investigations on imports of polyethylene retail carrier bags (PRCBs) from the People's Republic of China (PRC), Malaysia, and Thailand. DOC preliminarily found that producers/exporters have sold PRCBs in the U.S. market at less than fair value, with margins ranging from 0.12 percent to 122.88 percent. DOC is scheduled to make its final determinations in these investigations in June 2004.

The petition requesting these investigations was filed by the Polyethylene Retail Carrier Bag Committee and its individual members, PCL Packaging, Inc., Sonoco Products Company, Superbag Corp., Vanguard Plastics, Inc., and Inteplast Group, Ltd. The merchandise subject to these investigations is PRCBs which may be referred to as t-shirt sacks, merchandise bags, grocery bags, or checkout bags and is classified under statistical category 3923.21.0090 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States.

Today the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) announced the initiation of antidumping duty investigations on imports of certain frozen and canned warmwater shrimp from Brazil, Ecuador, India, the People's Republic of China, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) is scheduled to issue its preliminary injury determination on or before February 17, 2004. Should the ITC should find that there is a reasonable indication that the domestic industry is materially injured, or is threatened with material injury, as a result of imports of shrimp, the DOC investigations will proceed. Assuming that the preliminary determinations are not extended, the preliminary less than fair value determinations will be announced in June 2004.

The United States International Trade Commission (ITC) today determined that there is not a reasonable indication that a U.S. industry is materially injured or threatened with material injury by reason of imports of kosher chicken from Canada that is allegedly sold in the United States at less than fair value.

Chairman Deanna Tanner Okun, Vice Chairman Jennifer A. Hillman, and Commissioners Stephen Koplan, Charlotte R. Lane, and Daniel R. Pearson voted in the negative. Commissioner Marcia E. Miller voted in the affirmative.

As a result of the Commission's negative injury determination, the antidumping investigation that was requested by Empire Kosher Poultry, Inc. will be terminated.

the Department of the Treasury has published its quarterly list of countries that may require participation in, or cooperation with, a prohibited international boycott. The list includes the following countries:

Bahrain
Kuwait
Lebanon
Libya
Oman
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
Syria
United Arab Emirates
Yemen, Republic of

While Iraq is no longer on this list, companies must carefully review the documents associated with non-CPA transactions in Iraq to ensure that they do not contain prohibited boycott language.

Labels: Boycotts

The United States International Trade Commission (ITC) today determined that there is a reasonable indication that a U.S. industry is materially injured or threatened with material injury by reason of imports of wooden bedroom furniture from China that is allegedly sold in the United States at less than fair value. All six Commissioners voted in the affirmative. As a result of the ITC's affirmative determination, the U.S. Department of Commerce will continue to conduct its antidumping investigation of imports of wooden bedroom furniture from China, with its preliminary antidumping determination due on or about May 5, 2004.