The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rejected the appeals presented by the Chinese shrimp producer Hilltop International and its US importer affiliate Ocean Duke Corp., challenging the application of 112.8 per cent antidumping duties on imports of Hilltop’s shrimp.

The Chinese firm had been accused of transshipping shrimp through Cambodia to evade antidumping duties. However, Hilltop repeatedly assured that it had no affiliations with any company in Cambodia until the Department of Commerce confronted with the public registration documents unequivocally revealing the affiliation.

According to the Southern Shrimp Alliance once it became clear that Hilltop had made misrepresentations to Commerce regarding its affiliations and that Hilltop’s statements to the agency were unreliable, Commerce re-opened the record of other proceedings, including the fourth and fifth administrative reviews covering shrimp imports that entered the United States between February 1, 2008 and January 31, 2010.

Additionally, the Court found that Commerce had reasonably assigned the 112.81 per cent antidumping duty rate after taking steps to confirm that the rate had some basis in commercial reality and that 2a non-cooperative respondent could have made sales at the same rate."

The Alliance considers that the Court’s decision provides strong support to the agency’s efforts to address fraud and misrepresentation in Commerce proceedings.

The entity also ensures the Court’s decision is the culmination of substantial work undertaken by the SSA and the domestic shrimp industry to address antidumping duty evasion and trade fraud.