United States International Trade Commission, Year in Review: FY 2005

摘要

A global catastrophe had a direct effect on the ITC during FY 2005, raising the profile of the Commission's action in an antidumping duty investigation to an unexpected level. The Commission's antidumping investigations involving certain frozen warmwater shrimp from six countries were drawing to a close when, in late December 2004, an underwater earthquake triggered the massive tsunami in Southeast Asia that killed hundreds of thousands of people in many countries. Among the countries hit hard by the tsunami were India and Thailand, two of the countries involved in the Commission's shrimp investigation. During FY 2005, the Commission also began the second round of five-year (sunset) reviews that were initially considered during the 1999-2002 phase-in period of the sunset review law. Antidumping and countervailing duty orders in place as of 1995 were initially reviewed during a three-year transition period starting in 1999; the fifth anniversaries of those transition orders began to arrive in 2004, swelling the Commission's FY 2005 five-year review caseload. The Commission instituted 123 five-year (sunset) reviews during the fiscal year. The Commission continued to provide record levels of technical assistance to trade policymakers during FY 2005, meeting Administration and congressional requests for accurate, complex, objective information. ITC attorneys also continued to provide support to the USTR for WTO-related dispute settlement and litigation issues as well as to provide technical assistance to the executive branch in conjunction with the Doha Round trade negotiations, particularly the activities of the Negotiating Group on Rules.