Shrimp dumping charge will hurt US industry, consumers, say US seafood distributors

American shrimp farmers have filed an anti-dumping suit against six shrimp exporting countries with the US International Trade Commission, which released last week ruling that there was an “indication” that certain low-priced shrimp from the six countries named in the complaint were hurting US shrimpers.

 

American Seafood Distributors Association President, Wally Stevens, said about 90 percent of al shrimp consumed in the US is imported. The complaint against Vietnamese and other exporters, he said, would do nothing to aid the US industry.

 

Given the uncertainty about the amount of duties, importers may have to pay for shrimp imports over the next three months, from March through May, it is likely that there will be a substantial decline in volume.

 

The US shrimp market could be looking at a shortfall of 50,000 to 60,000 tonnes, or approximately 10 percent of total annual imports.

 

According to sources within the importer community, the chances of the domestic shrimp producers alleging ‘critical circumstances’ are almost 100 percent. ‘Critical circumstances’ is what allows the Dept. of Commerce to impose retroactive duties for the 90 days prior to their preliminary determination of anti-dumping duty.

 

With the market so complicated and varied, the three month reduction in imports is likely to mean that certain shrimp may become in short supply, and there is nothing domestic producers can do to provide a substitute product.

 

The US business community in Viet Nam, represented by the American Chamber of Commerce (Amcham), has assailed the US shrimpers’ charges as protectionism. They said shrimp imports have benefited the US economy by creating approximately 100,000 jobs in the domestic processing sector and by providing additional incomes estimated at more than two billion dollars annually to retailers and restaurants across the country.

 

In presentations to the US International Trade Commission before the panel reached its initial ruling against them, representatives of the six defendants said improvements in breeding technology and shrimp quality had helped shrimp exporters lower their prices. Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA) members had been disadvantaged not by this competition, they said, but by the slow application of advanced aquaculture and processing technologies by the US shrimp industry.

 

US law firm Akin Gump, representing ASDA, said the a study eight years ago, warned US shrimp producers and processors to improve their production, processing and marketing technologies or lose in their own market.

 

“The inescapable truth is that, even if successful, this case would not generate a single additional pound of domestic shrimp sales because the Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic shrimp fisheries are being fished to their maximum capacity at present,” Stevens said.-Enditem

Source: Vietnam News Agency