US to review shrimp anti-dumping duty

The US Department of Commerce has announced the preliminary determination of the second anti-dumping duty review against certain frozen freshwater shrimp from India along with four other countries such as Thailand, Brazil, Vietnam and Ecuador.

Anti-dumping duty in the case of Indian companies such as Devi Sea Foods has now been pegged at 0.70 per cent and Falcon Marine Exports at 1.69 per cent.

However, the real achievement has been in bringing down the specific all-India average rate to 1.09 per cent, down from 7.22 per cent which was prevailing earlier, the Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI) said. The 121 Indian exporters who have not responded to the query from the US Department have been imposed a duty of 110.90 per cent.

‘Damage done’

At the same time, the WTO panel ruled in favour of India’s complaint that the US requirement of 100 per cent continuous bonds on shrimp imports is illegal. Earlier, the court had ruled on the same issue in favour of Thailand. The ruling also confirmed the preliminary findings of a dispute settlement panel last October against such a practice in Ecuador.

Although this continues, the unbroken string of legal victories both in the US and the WTO over shrimp tariffs and continuous bonds, the SEAI said that much of the damage to Indian exporters has already been done. The number of active Indian shrimp exporters to the US markets has come down from 208 in 2004 to 68 currently.