The Commerce Department issued the preliminary results of its antidumping duty administrative review on chlorinated isocyanurates from China (A-570-898) (here). Rates calculated in this review will be used to set assessment rates for importers of subject merchandise from three exporters that was entered June 2013 through May 2014.
The Commerce Department issued the final results of its antidumping duty administrative review on polyethylene retail carrier bags from Thailand (A-549-821) (here). For entries on or after July 8, Commerce is setting a 122.88% AD duty cash deposit rate for Beyond Packaging Co., Ltd. All other exporters of subject merchandise will continue to get the cash deposit rate set for them in their most recently completed review, and companies that have never been assigned an AD duty rate will get the 4.69% all others rate.
The Commerce Department intends to end antidumping duties on purified carboxymethylcellulose from Finland (A-405-803), it said in the preliminary results of a changed circumstances review (here). Ashland Specialty Ingredients, the sole U.S. manufacturer of CMC and the original requestor of the duties, recently requested revocation of the AD duty order. If Commerce decides to revoke the order in the final results of its changed circumstances review, the effective date of revocation would be July 1, 2014, it said.
The FTC filed a joint complaint with the Florida Attorney General charging New York-based Lifewatch with using "blatantly illegal and deceptive robocalls to trick older consumers into signing up for medical alert systems with monthly monitoring fees," a news release from the FTC said Monday. The U.S. District Court in Orlando late last month halted an Orlando-based operation that the FTC and Florida Office of the Attorney General said "bombard[ed] consumers" with "massive robocall campaigns designed to trick them into paying up-front for worthless credit card interest rate reduction programs" (see 1506290049). Since 2012 Lifewatch has been bombarding consumers -- primarily elderly consumers -- with millions of unsolicited robocalls, the complaint said. Last year one of Lifewatch’s telemarketing firms, Worldwide Info Services, agreed to be banned from making robocalls or engaging in other deceptive conduct, to settle charges brought by the FTC and the state of Florida, the release said. The FTC and Florida's AG allege that Lifewatch knew of, and is responsible for, the illegal activities in that case, and that Lifewatch simply continued its telemarketing campaign using a variety of other telemarketers after Worldwide was shut down, the release said. “This company violated the Do Not Call Registry to deceive seniors, not only in Florida but across the country,” state Attorney General Pam Bondi said. The agencies are seeking a preliminary injunction to stop the defendants’ use of illegal robocalls and deceptive telemarketing claims, plus funds for eventual restitution to victims. The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court in Chicago, one of the locations where the firm does business.
A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages from the Commerce Department posted to CBP's website July 6, along with the case number(s) and CBP message number, is provided below. The messages are available by searching for the listed CBP message number at http://adcvd.cbp.dhs.gov/adcvdweb.
The Commerce Department issued the final results of the antidumping duty administrative review on solid urea from Russia (A-821-801) (here). Commerce determined the only company under review, MCC EuroChem, did not undersell subject merchandise during the period of review, assigning the company a zero percent AD duty rate. Subject merchandise from EuroChem entered between July 1, 2013 and June 30, 2014 will be liquidated without any assessment of AD duties, and future entries of solid urea exported from Russia by EuroChem will not be subject to AD duty cash deposit requirements until further notice. These final results take effect July 7.
A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages from the Commerce Department posted to CBP's website July 2, along with the case number(s) and CBP message number, is provided below. The messages are available by searching for the listed CBP message number at http://adcvd.cbp.dhs.gov/adcvdweb.
HDMI Licensing “wrongfully” demands $905,000-plus in back royalties and interest from Advanced Digital Broadcast, a Swiss-based supplier of HD set-top boxes, residential gateway devices and other products to pay-TV operators, ADB alleged in a breach of contract complaint filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in San Jose. ADB seeks a declaratory ruling that it doesn’t owe the money. HDMI Licensing threatened to cancel ADB’s license agreement at the close of business Tuesday and alert customs authorities globally to seize ADB shipments as “unauthorized” goods, the complaint said. The complaint doesn’t seek a preliminary injunction, only a “declaration” that HDMI Licensing “is precluded” from notifying customs that ADB goods “are unauthorized and subject to seizure because they are not.” Neither side commented Wednesday. Under its November 2005 HDMI license agreement, ADB dutifully paid the 4 cents per unit royalty it owed for every licensed “end-user cable, component, connector, repeater, source or sink” it shipped between January 2010 and December 2012, the complaint said. An independent HDMI Licensing auditor found in late 2014 -- incorrectly, ADB alleged -- that ADB failed to “reasonably incorporate” the HDMI trademarks into the product documentation materials that accompanied those shipments, the complaint said. That failure gives HDMI Licensing the authority to charge an additional 10 cents per unit royalty, and it’s that differential royalty that ADB said it doesn’t owe. "Solely in an effort to resolve the dispute," ADB "changed the way it reasonably incorporates the HDMI alleged trademark into its related materials,” the complaint said. “ADB licensed products implement any and all changes in marking” that HDMI Licensing suggested, yet the licensor won't relent, it said.
The International Trade Commission published notices in the July 2 Federal Register on the following AD/CV injury, Section 337 patent, and other trade proceedings (any notices that warrant a more detailed summary will be in another ITT article):
The Commerce Department issued the final results of its antidumping duty administrative review on brass sheet and strip from Italy (A-475-601) (here). For entries on or after July 6, Commerce is setting a 22% AD duty cash deposit rate for KME Italy SpA. All other exporters of subject merchandise will continue to get the cash deposit rate set for them in their most recently completed review, and companies that have never been assigned an AD duty rate will get the 5.44% all others rate.