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).
(a) For previously reviewed or investigated companies not participating in this review, the cash deposit rate would continue to be the company-specific rate published for the most recent period.
In its first full week available, Activision’s Spider-Man 2 for PS2 was the top-rented videogame in the U.S., Rentrak said its preliminary Home Video Essentials data for the week ended July 4 showed. Rentrak said the title earned $720,093 in the week, for $720,993 to date. The Xbox version was #3 ($387,419 in the week and $388,739 to date). Last week’s #1 game -- Atari’s DRIV3R on PS2 -- slipped to #2 in its 2nd week ($559,807 and $972,266). The Xbox version of the 3rd entry in Atari’s popular Driver series slipped one notch to #4 ($323,804 and $575,911). Atari again had one other game in the top 10: Shadow Ops: Red Mercury for Xbox at #7 (down 2 in its 3rd week, $175,543 and $468,583). There was one other Xbox title in the top 10: Take- Two Interactive’s Red Dead Revolver at #10 (down 2 in its 9th week, $140,140 and $1.38 million). The PS2 version dropped 3 to #5 ($267,502 and $2.42 million). Rounding out the top 10 were one PS2 title each from Ubisoft, Midway Games and Electronic Arts (EA): Respectively, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow at #6 (down 2 in its 3rd week, $183,965 and $452,365), NBA Ballers at #8 (down 2 in its 13th week, $171,942 and $2.99 million) and Need for Speed Underground at #9 (down 2 in its 33rd week, $171,242 and $9.05 million) as EA had one of its weaker showings in the top 10.
The International Trade Administration (ITA) has initiated an antidumping (AD) duty changed circumstances review and has preliminarily determined to revoke the AD duty order on bulk aspirin from China.
Pegasus asked a bankruptcy court to set a schedule for its suit 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].”
With Acclaim Entertainment’s future still cloudy due to lack of financing (CED July 6 p5), the publisher said it was battling to hang onto 2 of its most significant licensed properties. The company said in its latest 10-K SEC filing that the Major League Baseball Player’s Assn. (MLBPA) informed it in May that because it was late in making certain royalty payments, Acclaim’s license was terminated. Acclaim said it was told that if it didn’t make the payments “in a timely fashion” and if “certain other remedies” weren’t made, the license wouldn’t be reinstated. But Acclaim claimed that it had actually “made all required payments to the MLBPA and [was] current with our payment obligations with certain MLB players.” The publisher said it hadn’t reached an agreement with the MLBPA “regarding the other requested remedies,” and “we disagree with MLBPA’s interpretation of the license agreement provisions and have advised them as such.” But Acclaim said “we are in continued discussions with MLBPA on this matter.” Acclaim said it was also told by Turok licensor Classic Media in June that because it hadn’t made certain royalty payments for the videogame Turok: Evolution, its licensing deal was terminated. The publisher said “we are in discussions with Classic in an effort to resolve this matter amicably.” Acclaim also mentioned a legal dispute with developer BattleBorne Entertainment. The latter company said since then that it obtained a preliminary injunction against Acclaim that prevented the publisher from shipping Combat Elite: WWII Paratroopers for PS2 and Xbox (CED July 7 p8). BattleBorne had sued Acclaim for breaching the companies’ development deal, claiming that the struggling publisher failed to make payments when due and threatened to ship the game before making all required payments.