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COMMERCE ISSUES PRELIMINARY RESULTS FINDING THAT SHANTOU RED GARDEN IS SUBJECT TO ANTIDUMPING DUTIES

Notice was published in the Federal Register today of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s (Commerce) preliminary results of the fourteenth administrative review of the antidumping duty order on frozen warmwater shrimp from People’s Republic of China, covering Chinese shrimp imported into the United States between February 1, 2018 and January 31, 2019.
Commerce preliminarily determined that Shantou Red Garden Food Processing Co., Ltd. (Red Garden) was selling shrimp into the United States market during the review period at less than fair value and calculated a dumping margin of 56.81%.
A company calling itself Red Garden has, since March 2013, claimed to be exempt from antidumping duties as the result of a challenge to this trade relief brought by the Chinese government at the World Trade Organization.
However, in the decision published today, Commerce preliminarily determined that the Red Garden currently operating is not the same company as the Red Garden that was the subject of the original investigation in 2004, nor was it that company’s successor-in-interest.
In its analysis of the currently operating Red Garden, Commerce observed that the company originally investigated was a foreign joint venture operating in China that had been owned, in part, by the Red Chamber Company, “through its affiliate Aqua Star Imports, Inc.” At that time, “Red Garden’s board of directors had three members, two of whom (i.e., Min Bing Kou and
Min Shin Kou) were appointed by the foreign owner and one by” Shantou Red Garden Foodstuff Co., Ltd. “Min Bing Kou also served as the legal representative and the Board Chairman, and he was solely responsible for authorizing the withdrawal of funds from the bank accounts owned by Red Garden.”
In contrast, the currently operating Red Garden is no longer a foreign joint venture, operates as a limited liability company, and has no board of directors. Commerce found that the company is now fully owned by Chinese entities/individuals. Commerce preliminarily determined that there were significant changes in ownership, control and management of the company such that the currently operating Red Chamber is “materially dissimilar” from the
Red Garden existing at the time of the investigation and “not the successor-in-interest to that company.”
Commerce also noted that the previously operating Red Garden changed its name to Shantou Jin Cheng Food Co., Ltd. in December 2007, three months after Commerce had assigned Red Garden a cash deposit rate of 112.81 percent, and then changed its name back to Red Garden in January 2013, just two months before Red Garden was formally excluded from the antidumping duty order. Commerce observed that “we find it significant that the timeline of
the name changes appears to correspond to changes in the cash deposit rates. . . .”
If maintained in the Final Results, all of Red Garden’s shipments of frozen, non-breaded warmwater shrimp to the United States will be subject to the antidumping duty order and antidumping duties will be assessed on the imports of Red Garden’s shrimp made between February 1, 2018 and January 31, 2019.
In addition to its findings regarding Red Garden, Commerce also noted that Shantou Yuexing Enterprise Company (SYEC) had failed to submit either a no-shipment certification or a separate rate certification in the review proceeding. In the absence of a certification, Commerce preliminarily determined that it is appropriate to change the company’s cash deposit rate from the 9.08 percent rate obtained by SYEC in the fourth administrative review to the 112.81 percent rate applied to companies operated or controlled by the Chinese government.
“Today’s announcement shows, once again, the commitment of the Trump Administration to trade enforcement and to establishing a level playing field for American seafood producers,” said John Williams, the Executive Director of the Southern Shrimp Alliance. “We are grateful to the U.S. Department of Commerce for conducting a thorough investigation of the information that our industry brought to the agency’s attention.”
Read the Preliminary Results of the 14th administrative review of the
antidumping duty order on certain frozen warmwater shrimp from the People’s
Republic of China here:
Read the public version of Commerce’s “Preliminary Successor-In-Interest
Determination” regarding Red Garden from the 14th administrative review of
the antidumping duty order on certain frozen warmwater shrimp from the
People’s Republic of China here:

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