Ecuador's attorney: It's not over until it's over

Warren Connelly was sitting in a US International Trade Commission (ITC) hearing Tuesday when he received some shocking news: The US Department of Commerce (DOC) unexpectedly changed its mind and slapped hefty import duties on Ecuador’s shrimp exports.

“We got the news in the middle of the hearing. It was a little difficult to quantify on the fly,” Connelly, an attorney with the Washington D.C. law firm Akin Gump, told IntraFish Wednesday. He represents the interests of Ecuador shrimp producers.

Both the ITC hearing and Tuesday’s DOC decision focus on an ongoing case brought by the US shrimp industry against seven shrimp exporting countries -- Ecuador, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, China and Vietnam.