US Food Producers File 1 Billion Dollar Lawsuit

A recent release from the Dow Jones Newswire reports that five domestic producers of food products filed a $1 billion lawsuit seeking class-action status against a handful of major insurance companies and the U.S. government for alleged damages caused by dumped Chinese food products.

The complaint alleges the insurers' negligent issuance of customs surety bonds, and the subsequent refusal to pay under the bonds, allowed the sale of "huge amounts of competing food imports" from China at below cost, or "dumped" prices.

The complaint alleges that for eight years, the insurers negligently issued hundreds of customs surety bonds that guaranteed the payment of any dumping duties the government might determine were owed by U.S. importers for the specified Chinese goods.

The five producers - Sioux Honey Association, Adee Honey Farms, Monterey Mushrooms Inc., The Garlic Co. and Beaucoup Crawfish of Eunice Inc. - say the alleged action caused "severe financial damages."

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Michael Coursey of Kelley Drye & Warren LLP, the firm representing the food producers, said:

“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. 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,” said Michael Coursey, a partner in Kelley Drye’s

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