The International Trade Administration has issued its preliminary results of the following antidumping and countervailing duty administrative reviews:
Note that Daily Update on Capitol Hill Trade Actions does not appear in today's issue of International Trade Today. Publication of this feature will resume as new information becomes available.
Pursuant to the Offset Act1, also known as the Byrd Amendment, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued notice of its intent to distribute assessed antidumping or countervailing duties for fiscal year 2009.
Verizon Wireless argued against rules that would curb exclusive handset agreements between carriers and equipment makers, in a written statement sent to Rep. Rick Boucher, D- Va., chairman of the telecom subcommittee. AT&T also filed a statement with the committee. Boucher asked for written statements from both after the companies declined to provide witnesses at a May 7 hearing on wireless competition, citing scheduling conflicts. With Congress considering handset exclusivity legislation, Verizon said “U.S. consumers have access to more innovative devices, including the iPhone and many Blackberry and Treo models that are introduced here first … In the last 18 months, many of the most advanced handsets have been launched in the United States, including Apple’s iPhone 3G, LG’s Voyager, Samsung’s Instinct, Google’s G1, and four Blackberry devices.” Verizon Wireless also argued that such agreements are “common throughout the American economy” and “statutorily mandated for patent holders.” Verizon Wireless also counseled the FCC not to intervene in the wireless backhaul market or expand regulation of roaming agreements between carriers. AT&T in its statement called wireless “one of the great success stories in American business.” AT&T also submitted data to buttress arguments that wireless backhaul is highly competitive, countering claims by Sprint Nextel and others. “AT&T has shown that the prices its customers pay in pricing flexibility areas fell by more than 18 percent (for DS1 circuits) and 10 percent (for DS3 circuits) in real inflation-adjusted terms from 2001 through 2004, and fell again by 23.7 percent (DS1) and 20.9 percent (DS3) in real inflation-adjusted terms from 2004 through the third quarter of 2007,” the company said. The Senate Commerce Committee plans a hearing on wireless competition issues on June 17, committee sources said, but plans are in the preliminary stages.
TerreStar Europe is “encouraged” after receiving word from the Court of First Instance in Luxembourg that it intends to deal in an “expedited fashion,” with the lawsuit the TerreStar subsidiary filed against the European Commission, Doug Brandon, TerreStar general counsel, said in an interview.
Verizon Wireless argued against rules that would curb exclusive handset agreements between carriers and equipment makers, in a written statement sent to Rep. Rick Boucher, D- Va., chairman of the telecom subcommittee. AT&T also filed a statement with the committee. Boucher asked for written statements from both after the companies declined to provide witnesses at a May 7 hearing on wireless competition, citing scheduling conflicts. With Congress considering handset exclusivity legislation, Verizon said “U.S. consumers have access to more innovative devices, including the iPhone and many Blackberry and Treo models that are introduced here first. … In the last 18 months, many of the most advanced handsets have been launched in the United States, including Apple’s iPhone 3G, LG’s Voyager, Samsung’s Instinct, Google’s G1, and four Blackberry devices.” Verizon Wireless also argued that such agreements are “common throughout the American economy” and “statutorily mandated for patent holders.” The Senate Commerce Committee plans a hearing on wireless competition issues on June 17, committee sources said, but plans are in the preliminary stages.
The International Trade Administration has issued antidumping duty orders for citric acid and certain citrate salts (citric acid) from Canada and China.
Left Behind Games expects to report its “smallest fiscal year loss” to date for the year ended March 31, based on preliminary internal data, CEO Troy Lyndon said in a filing with the SEC. Q2 ended Sept. 30 represented the first profitable quarter for the maker of Christian-themed interactive games. In Q4, the company further reduced its “operational burn rate another 20 percent to less than $40,000 per month,” he said. Left Behind recently started marketing programs to target more than 300,000 U.S. churches as potential customers and has run 13 direct marketing tests and sent out more than 7,500 church marketing packages including more than 75,000 units of Left Behind games that have been distributed by pastors, he said. Left Behind received payment from 5.5 percent of the churches that received the packages so far, he said. The company expects to eventually generate earnings of more than $10 million per year, he said. Left Behind started development of the first game specifically targeted at church pastors, The Bible Tutor Game, which it expects to release before Christmas, Lyndon said. The company continues to “evaluate opportunities to acquire other inspirational products and brands and continue to review potential merger or acquisition candidates that share our mission to create family-friendly and inspirational entertainment,” he said.
The International Trade Administration has issued the final results of its antidumping duty new shipper review of certain frozen warmwater shrimp from Vietnam for the period of February 1, 2007 through January 31, 2008.
Avanti Communications, a European broadband satellite operator, received 250,000 Euro ($398,000) contract from the European Space Agency to start preliminary design review of a new satellite system called Hercules, Avanti said. If manufactured, the Hercules system could provide broadband services to 2.5 million rural homes in the U.K., it said.