UNITED STATES INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION In the Matter of: ) ) CRAWFISH TAIL MEAT FROM ) Investigation No.: CHINA ) 731-TA-752 (Review) Pages: 1 through 265 Place: Washington, D.C. Date: June 3, 2003 HERITAGE REPORTING CORPORATION Official Reporters 1220 L Street, N.W., Suite 600 Washington, D.C. 20005 (202) 628-4888 1 THE UNITED STATES INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION In the Matter of: ) ) CRAWFISH TAIL MEAT FROM ) Investigation No.: CHINA ) 731-TA-752 (Review) Tuesday, June 3, 2003 Room 101 U.S. International Trade Commission 500 E Street, S.W. Washington, D.C. The hearing commenced, pursuant to notice, at 9:33 a.m., before the Commissioners of the United States International Trade Commission, the Honorable Deanna Tanner Okun, Chairman, presiding. APPEARANCES: On behalf of the International Trade Commission: Commissioners: DEANNA TANNER OKUN, CHAIRMAN JENNIFER A. HILLMAN, VICE CHAIRMAN MARCIA E. MILLER, COMMISSIONER STEPHEN KOPLAN, COMMISSIONER Staff: MARILYN R. ABBOTT, Secretary to the Commission WILLIAM R. BISHOP, Staff Assistant to the Secretary GEORGE DEYMAN, Supervisory Investigator OLYMPIA HAND, Investigator MARY BETH JONES, Attorney Heritage Reporting Corporation (202) 628-4888 2 APPEARANCES: (Continued) Staff: JOHN BENEDETTO, Economist DAVID BOYLAND, Accountant ADDITIONAL APPEARANCES: IN SUPPORT OF THE CONTINUATION OF ANTIDUMPING DUTIES: THE HONORABLE BOB ODOM Commissioner Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry ROY JOHNSON Director, Marketing Development Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry GABRIEL LeBLANC, JR. Secretary-Treasurer Acadiana Fishermen's Cooperative TERRY GUIDRY President Catahoula Crawfish, Inc. ADAM J. JOHNSON President Bayou Land Seafood, LLC FRANK RANDOL President Randol, Inc. WILL E. LEONARD, Of Counsel Adducci, Mastriani & Schaumberg, L.L.P. Washington, D.C. JOHN C. STEINBERGER, Of Counsel Adducci, Mastriani & Schaumberg, L.L.P. Washington, D.C. S. ALEX LASHER, Of Counsel Adducci, Mastriani & Schaumberg, L.L.P. Washington, D.C. Heritage Reporting Corporation (202) 628-4888 3 ADDITIONAL APPEARANCES: IN OPPOSITION OF THE CONTINUATION OF ANTIDUMPING DUTIES: MIKE POWERS Director, Seafood Procurement Darden Restaurants, Inc. PAUL OBIREK Director, Seafood Procurement King & Prince Seafood Corp JAMES MULLEN President Ocean's Catch ZHANG WEI President Pacific Coast Fisheries Corp. CHRISTINE COSTLEY Sales Harbor Seafood, Inc. RICH MARANO Vice President Harbor Seafood, Inc. JAMES A. JOHNSON, JR. East Coast Sales Manager Sea Safari, Ltd. MATT FASS Vice president Maritime products International, Inc. BOB REDAR Senior Vice president, Sales and Marketing Seal Watch International, Ltd. RONALD M. WISLA, Of Counsel Garvey Schubert Barer Washington, D.C. Heritage Reporting Corporation (202) 628-4888 4 I N D E X PAGE OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN OKUN 6 STATEMENT OF WILL E. LEONARD, OF COUNSEL, 7 ADDUCCI, MASTRIANI & SCHAUMBERG, L.L.P. STATEMENT OF RONALD M. WISLA, OF COUNSEL, 10 GARVEY SCHUBERT BARER TESTIMONY OF THE HONORABLE BOB ODOM, 14 COMMISSIONER, LOUISIANA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY TESTIMONY OF ROY JOHNSON, DIRECTOR, 18 MARKETING DEVELOPMENT, LOUISIANA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY TESTIMONY OF JOHN C. STEINBERGER, OF COUNSEL, 23 ADDUCCI, MASTRIANI & SCHAUMBERG TESTIMONY OF GABRIEL LEBLANC, JR., 32 SECRETARY-TREASURER, ACADIANA FISHERMEN'S COOPERATIVE TESTIMONY OF FRANK RANDOL, PRESIDENT, 35 RANDOL, INC. TESTIMONY OF ADAM J. JOHNSON, PRESIDENT, 38 BAYOU LAND SEAFOOD, LLC TESTIMONY OF TERRY GUIDRY, PRESIDENT, 40 CATAHOULA CRAWFISH, INC. TESTIMONY OF MIKE POWERS, DIRECTOR, 130 SEAFOOD PROCUREMENT, DARDEN RESTAURANTS, INC. TESTIMONY OF CHRISTINE COSTLEY, SALES, 133 HARBOR SEAFOOD, INC. TESTIMONY OF JAMES MULLEN, PRESIDENT, 142 OCEAN'S CATCH Heritage Reporting Corporation (202) 628-4888 5 I N D E X PAGE TESTIMONY OF PAUL OBIREK, DIRECTOR, 151 SEAFOOD PROCUREMENT, KING & PRINCE SEAFOOD CORP TESTIMONY OF JAMES A. JOHNSON, JR., 153 EAST COAST SALES MANAGER, SEA SAFARI, LTD. TESTIMONY OF BOB REDAR, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, 157 SALES AND MARKETING, SEAL WATCH INTERNATIONAL, LTD. TESTIMONY OF MATT FASS, VICE PRESIDENT, 160 MARITIME PRODUCTS INTERNATIONAL, INC. TESTIMONY OF ZHANG WEI, PRESIDENT, 174 PACIFIC COAST FISHERIES CORP. Heritage Reporting Corporation (202) 628-4888 6 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 (9:33 a.m.) 3 CHAIRMAN OKUN: Good morning. On behalf of the 4 United States Trade Commission, I would like welcome 5 you to this hearing on Investigation No. 731-TA-752 6 (Review) involving crawfish tail meat from China. The 7 purpose of this five-year review is to determine 8 whether revocation of the antidumping duty order 9 covering crawfish tail meat from China would be likely 10 to lead to continuation or recurrence of material 11 injury to an industry in the United States within a 12 reasonably foreseeable time. 13 Schedules setting forth the presentation of 14 this hearing and testimony of witnesses are available 15 at the secretary's desk. I understand the parties are 16 aware of time allocations. Any questions regarding 17 time allocations should be directed to the secretary. 18 As all written material will be entered 19 fully into the record, it need not be read to us at 20 this time. All witnesses must be sworn in by the 21 secretary before presenting testimony. 22 Finally, if you will be submitting documents 23 that contain information you wish to be treated as 24 confidential business information, your request should 25 be in compliance with Commission Rule 201.6. Heritage Reporting Corporation (202) 628-4888 7 1 Madam Secretary, are there any preliminary 2 matters? 3 MS. ABBOTT: Yes Madam Chairman. 4 With your permission, Christine Costley will 5 be placed on the calendar representing Harbor Seafood. 6 That is on page 2. 7 CHAIRMAN OKUN: Without objection. 8 Commissioner Koplan, do you also have a 9 preliminary matter? 10 COMMISSIONER KOPLAN: Yes, I do. Thank you, 11 Madam Chairman. 12 I would like to take a second to introduce 13 the newest member of our office, Cortney Jean, who is 14 up here on the dias with us. She will be our summer 15 intern this summer from Georgetown Law School. Thank 16 you. 17 CHAIRMAN OKUN: Thank you, Commissioner 18 Koplan. 19 We may then proceed with opening remarks. 20 MS. ABBOTT: Opening remarks on behalf of 21 the domestic interested parties will be by Will E. 22 Leonard, Adducci, Mastriani & Schaumberg. 23 CHAIRMAN OKUN: Good morning, Mr. Leonard. 24 MR. LEONARD: Good morning, Madam Chairman 25 and members of the Commission. Heritage Reporting Corporation (202) 628-4888 8 1 I am Willy Leonard of the law firm of 2 Adducci, Mastriani & Schaumberg. With me are John 3 Steinberger, Mark Leventhal, who is to be here, and 4 Alex Lasher. 5 We represent the domestic interested 6 parties, the domestic parties, the Crawfish Processors 7 Alliance and its members, and the Louisiana Department 8 of Agriculture and Forestry, Bob Odom, Commissioner. 9 Our position in this five-year review is 10 that revocation of the antidumping duty order on 11 crawfish tail meat from China would continue material 12 injury to a domestic industry, not that revocation of 13 the order would be likely to lead to continuation of 14 material injury, not that revocation would be likely 15 to lead to recurrence of material injury, not that the 16 material injury would continue or recur within a 17 reasonably foreseeable time, we are not here to deal 18 in soft shoe semantics. We are not here to squeeze by 19 to an affirmative determination through the cautious 20 use of a generously worded statute. 21 We believe with every particle of our being 22 that our domestic industry, the crawfish processing 23 industry is gravely, not just materially, injured, and 24 without the antidumping order that injury will 25 continue until we soon perish. Heritage Reporting Corporation (202) 628-4888 9 1 Today the domestic interested parties will 2 lead off with the 23-year commissioner of the 3 Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry, Bob 4 Odom, who will describe the importance to his state of 5 the tasty, repast, sometimes known by tasteless names 6 like "crawdad" and "mudbug". Commissioner Odom will 7 also discuss actions on several fronts to deal with 8 the Chinese invasion. 9 The director of market development of the 10 Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry, Roy 11 Johnson, who has had the unenviable task of trying to 12 develop markets for Louisiana crawfish in the face of 13 the imports onslaught will show the integral place of 14 the subject product in the domestic crawfish business, 15 and the impact of imports in the U.S. market. 16 I shall summarize the situation that 17 prompted a unanimous Commission five years ago vote in 18 the affirmative. 19 John Steinberger will recount what is 20 occurring today with imports, their effect on the U.S. 21 industry and aspects of the problem of enforcing the 22 dumping order. 23 Four peelers of crawfish, Gab LeBlanc, Frank 24 Randol, Adam Johnson and Terry Guidry have left their 25 processing in this the high season because they think Heritage Reporting Corporation (202) 628-4888 10 1 speaking to you of the necessity of retaining the 2 order may be the only way that they can remain in 3 business. 4 Mr. Steinberger will conclude our 5 presentation with a somber appraisal of what will 6 happen if the antidumping order is revoked. We would 7 like to reserve time for rebuttal. In addition, I 8 believe a separate allotment of time will permit of a 9 closing statement. 10 And oh, yes, on the assumption that we all 11 have to eat, and that since the subject of this 12 hearing is not steel or wood or chemicals, but very 13 much a gastronomical delight, everyone is invited to 14 partake of Chief Frank Randol's crawfish treat. 15 Thank you. 16 CHAIRMAN OKUN: Thank you.