The International Trade Administration (ITA) has initiated an antidumping (AD) duty changed circumstances review of sebacic acid from China to determine whether Tianjin Chemicals Import and Export Corporation (Tianjin) has resumed dumping of sebacic acid produced by Hengshui Dongfeng Chemical Co., Ltd. (Hengshui), as alleged by a domestic interested party.

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued its final results of the countervailing (CV) duty administrative review of low enriched uranium from France for one producer/exporter for the period of May 14, 2001 through December 31, 2002.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued an amendment to Customs Directive 099 3510-004 (Monetary Guidelines for Setting Bond Amounts) in order to add new guidelines for determining continuous bond requirements for importers of agriculture or aquaculture merchandise subject to antidumping (AD) and/or countervailing (CV) duty cases.

(a) CV net subsidy rate of zero; however, suspension of liquidation will continue

The International Trade Administration (ITA) frequently issues notices on antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CV) duty orders which Broker Power considers to be "minor" in importance as they concern actions that occur after an order is issued and neither announce nor cause any changes to an order's duty rates, scope, affected firms, or effective period.

The ITA states that until completion of the review, it will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to allow, at the option of the importer, the posting of a bond or security in lieu of an AD cash deposit for entries of the subject merchandise both produced and exported from China by Jining Jinshan.

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has initiated new shipper reviews for the antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CV) duty orders on certain softwood lumber from Canada with respect to the following company and review periods:

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has issued its preliminary results of the following antidumping (AD) duty administrative reviews:

Pegasus asked a bankruptcy court to set a schedule for its lawsuit against DirecTV and the National Rural Telecom Co-Op (NRTC), though a decision hasn’t been released on Pegasus’ appeal of an order denying its request for preliminary injunction. The suit is a new one among the companies, which had been in litigation for 3 years. Pegasus filed this complaint in June (CD June 16 p5) after DirecTV and NRTC announced they had signed new distribution agreements that excluded Pegasus (CD June 3 p8). The suit is part of its filing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Portland, Me. Pegasus said the “2-track approach” is necessary because even an expedited ruling on the preliminary injunction appeal might not give the parties time for discovery. Pegasus asked for a trial date the week of Aug. 16 and asked that the issue of any damages be tried in a separate phase. Pegasus also submitted discovery requests, asking for documents from NRTC and DirecTV -- including from the most recent termination agreement, the Aug. settlement (CD Aug 12 p3), termination of the member agreements and the distribution agreement between NRTC and Hughes Communications Galaxy from 1992. Meanwhile, some of Pegasus’ senior secured lenders objected to a proposal from Pegasus asking to implement an employee retention plan. Pegasus submitted the plan to the court in June, saying the “high stakes” of its ongoing litigation with DirecTV and NRTC might prompt a “mass exodus of employees.” Pegasus said the “NRTC’s purported notice of termination effective as of Aug. 31, 2004, has most employees believing that they may be out of work, at the latest, by the end of the summer.” Pegasus proposed a plan that would cover only 100 management employees working with the satellite division. The 3-part plan -- including a monthly incentive, a retention award (distributed monthly) and severance pay -- would cover 12 months beginning July 1 just past. The company estimated it would pay out more than $8 million for the monthly incentive and retention awards. If all covered employees were terminated, severance pay would cost an additional $3.7 million. Pegasus said it may reevaluate staffing needs between Dec. 31 and June 30, 2005, due to the litigation, resulting in a reduction in retention award payments. The lenders told the court the proposal should be rejected because estimated payments “are wildly excessive given the current position of these cases.” The lenders said Pegasus’ cash collateral could be used only for ongoing business expenses according to a budget: “The amounts requested… are not set forth in any budget submitted to the [lenders].”

In its 2nd full week available, Columbia TriStar’s thriller Secret Window was again the #1-rented DVD in the U.S., Rentrak said its preliminary Home Video Essentials data for the week ended July 4 showed. Rentrak said the title earned an additional $7.19 million on DVD in the week, for $15.54 million to date. New DVDs in the top 10 were Miramax’s Cold Mountain at #2 ($5.95 million in the week, $6.06 million to date), MGM’s Barbershop 2: Back in Business at #4 ($5.34 million, $5.40 million) and Paramount’s The Perfect Score at #10 ($1.27 million, $1.30 million).