Due to the large number of firms requested for review and the resulting administrative burden to review each company, Commerce is considering exercising its authority to limit the number of respondents selected for review. While Commerce has not yet determined the methodology to be used to limit respondent selection, it may use a statistically valid sample or select the largest exporters and producers by volume. Should Commerce determine to sample the exporters, it will employ the following procedures: 1) issue a letter to the interested parties detailing the proposed sampling methodology; 2) after analyzing the parties’ comments, finalize its sampling methodology; 3) notify the parties and invite them to send a representative to witness the sampling selection; 4) conduct the sampling exercise; 5) notify all interested parties of the selection outcome of the sampling exercise (selected respondents will be issued the full antidumping questionnaire); and 6) record the results in a memorandum.

In advance of issuance of the antidumping questionnaire, Commerce will be requiring all parties for whom a review is requested to respond to a Quantity and Value (Q&V) Questionnaire which requests information on the respective quantity and U.S. dollar sales value of all exports of shrimp to the U.S. during 8/4/04 through 1/31/06. The Q&V questionnaire is available at http://ia.ita.doc.gov/. Responses to the Q&V questionnaire are due to Commerce by April 28. For parties that do not respond to the Q&V questionnaire, Commerce may resort to the use of facts otherwise available and may employ an adverse inference if the party failed to cooperate by not acting to the best of its ability.

In proceedings involving non-market economy (NME) countries, Commerce begins with a rebuttable presumption that all companies within the country are subject to government control and should be assigned a single antidumping duty deposit rate. Commerce’s policy is to assign all exporters of subject merchandise in an NME country this single rate unless an exporter demonstrates that it is sufficiently independent so as to be entitled to a separate rate. To demonstrate eligibility for a separate rate, Commerce requires companies that have not previously been assigned a separate rate to submit a separate rates status application. The deadline to submit the separate rate status application which is available at http://ia.ita.doc.gov/ is May 19. This requirement applies equally to NME-owned companies, wholly-foreign owned companies and foreign resellers that purchase the subject merchandise and export it to the U.S.

Members who did business with any firms during the time periods being reviewed are urged to contact those companies to ensure those companies cooperate with Commerce and provide all of the requested information, including the Q&V questionnaire and the separate rates status application (if applicable). In instances in which foreign firms do not cooperate with Commerce, the highest duty possible is assessed and the importer is forced to pay that duty.

Commerce expects to issue final results not later than February 28, 2007.