Kelley Drye Files $1 Billion Suit Accusing Insurers of Aiding Chinese Food Dumping

http://www.law.com/jsp/tal/digestTAL.jsp?id=1202429753487&Kelley_Drye_Files__Billion_Suit_Accusing_Insurers_of_Aiding_Chinese_Food_Dumping_


Kelley Drye Files $1 Billion Suit Accusing Insurers of Aiding Chinese Food Dumping
By Alison Frankel
April 08, 2009
The allegations could be the stuff of a John Grisham novel if they weren't so nausea-inducing: U.S. producers of garlic, crawfish meat, canned mushrooms, and honey (see what we mean about the nausea?) contend in a class action complaint filed Tuesday that six major insurance companies--with the tacit cooperation of the U.S. Department of Commerce--secretly facilitated the import of Chinese products that were dumped on the market at ruinous prices.

The domestic producers, represented by Kelley Drye & Warren and Adduci, Mastriani & Schaumberg, claim that between 1998 and 2006 the insurers issued hundreds of surety bonds that guaranteed the payment of any dumping duties the government might determine were owed by U.S. importers for the Chinese goods. Here's The National Law Journal's story about the suit, which was filed in the U.S. Court of International Trade.

"Without these customs surety bonds, the importers could not have brought in and sold the Chinese goods in the U.S. market at steeply dumped prices," Kelley Drye partner Michael Coursey told the NLJ. "The dumping of these imports forced the domestic producers to significantly lower the prices for their competing products, causing the producers to lose hundreds of millions of dollars."

Named as defendants are the Hartford Cos., Lincoln General, Washington International, American Home Assurance, Great American Insurance Cos. and International Fidelity. The Hartford declined to comment to The Hartford Courant on the suit. The docket does not yet list counsel for the defendants.

Good thing we are bailing out the insurance giants with our tax dollars. Otherwise, American workers and farmers who actually produce things might be able to get a fair wage. Much better to make sure that executives receive billions, while the common folk are lectured about 'the new world order,' 'global competitiveness,' and 'flexibility.'

Oh, and for the humor-impaired, the above is :sarcasm:

k&r

-app

I grow & sell garlic from my market garden. The varieties I sell are rare and heirloom hard necks mostly, plus one hardy softneck (inchelium red).

I have some customers who gasp at the $10 per pound price I charge, but that is the minimum I need for a 10 month crop (planted in October, dug in July, then hung and dried and cured until August). The reason that they gasp at the price is that they have gotten used to the $2 per pound Chinese dumped product (available at your local Stupor Sprawl Wart).

I hope someone k&r's the OP one more time so that this can go to the greatest page. Trade reg's are a pretty opaque area of current events, but they affect us every day. Jobs, the environment, and our national deficit all trace back to such subtle moves by insurance execs and trade negotiators.

-app

folks have no idea how to live without cheap stuff from China

and unlike most DUers, I have nothing against China. I actually like the place and did consulting for Chinese environmental organizations for a few years.

I just can't figure out how it can be cost effective to ship or fly a low value vegetable like garlic from China to NYC. There has to be dumping and or transport subsidies involved.

I bought 6 bulbs of German Red from Johnny's last Fall and it set me back almost a third of a C-note.

I failed to mulch my beds one Year and the lack of snow combined with -25 C temps, did them in. I won't make that expensive mistake again.

seemslikeadream: Gardeners are some of my best customers: they know what it takes to grow something well. I may try putting together a note on growing garlic for this coming season.

HamdenRice: I too have nothing against China, but I do feel strongly that low wages or costs in one country should not be used to destroy the agricultural base of another country.Unfortunately, this is exactly what happened to Mexico following NAFTA (via cheap US corn). US garlic growers have been vulnerable to the Chinese because it IS valuable (for a vegetable at least) and stores and transports well. But you're right, there are definitely subsidies involved in getting that cheap garlic into our supermarkets.

Farmers are land managers, stewards of the biosphere, and the essential 'eyes per acre' (as described by Wendell Berry) in addition to being cogs in the economic machine. A nation without farmers is a nation without liberty or a soul.

formercia: I'll consider myself warned, as I didn't get around to mulching this past Fall (but fortunately, the single-digit-F lows of our winter here in Western NC did not harm it. Nonetheless, I will plan on buying compost and straw this year, as losing my varieties would be tragic. If you want some seed garlic this fall PM me. Even with shipping, I'll be cheaper than Johnny's (though they are a great company, and I buy from them too at times).

-app

Always like to try new varieties.
Here in Maine, the cold weather does limit the varieties that will do well, but the Summers are perfect to finish a crop.

Nothing like chopping up some tender scapes for those Summer veggie stir-fries. It makes it all worthwhile.

One of these days, I'd like to get back to Hiddenite to do some digging.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/mighty-appetite/2006/06/my_friend_the_garlic_scape_1.html

Garlic Scape Pesto

Ingredients:
1 cup garlic scapes (about 8 or 9 scapes), top flowery part removed, cut into ¼-inch slices
1/3 cup walnuts
¾ cup olive oil
¼-1/2 cup grated parmigiano
½ teaspoon salt
black pepper to taste

Method:
Place scapes and walnuts in the bowl of a food processor and whiz until well combined and somewhat smooth. Slowly drizzle in oil and process until integrated. With a rubber spatula, scoop pesto out of bowl and into a mixing bowl. Add parmigiano to taste; add salt and pepper. Makes about 6 ounces of pesto. Keeps for up to one week in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.

--snip--


Good item for the Farmers Market...

that made it happen.

What The F???

I smell RICO.