CIT Allows Tomato Exporters to Intervene in AD Suit Out of Time

The Court of International Trade on Nov. 25 allowed exporters NS Brands and Naturesweet Invernaderos S. de R.L. de C.V. to intervene in a case challenging the results of a 27-year-old antidumping duty investigation. Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves held that the companies showed good cause for waiting nearly five years in seeking to intervene in the case because the trade court "drastically changed the landscape of this litigation by ordering" the Commerce Department to investigate the 1995-96 tomato market "approximately 29 years" later. It would have been "nearly impossible in 2019 for NatureSweet" to anticipate the court's decision when the case was first filed, the judge said.