Anti-dumping duty on shrimp may be withdrawn

The US Department of Commerce (DoC) and the US International Trade Commission (ITC) will initiate two reviews – the Fifth Administrative Review and the Sunset Review – next year for examining the anti-dumping duty imposed on import of shrimp from India.

The first round of fresh reviews, the Sunset Review will be announced by next month followed by the Fifth Administrative Review in February. The Sunset review, supposed to be the last of the anti-dumping duty reviews will examine details of the export of marine products to the US since the last five years beginning from 2004. This review will examine the export performance of various Indian companies, especially the mandatory respondents selected by DoC.

The marine products export sector expects the final verdict of the reviews would be favourable for India and the anti -dumping duty might be withdrawn fully or reduce to a nominal level. The exporters fraternity here also expect the preliminary results of the ongoing fourth administrative review by the New Year. It may be recalled that the average duty on Indian shrimps had been reduced to 0.79 per cent in the third administrative review in July 2009.

The US administration had imposed anti-dumping duty on shrimp imported from India and other east-Asian countries in August 2004 following a complaint by Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA), a local organisation of shrimp producers. Later they had imposed heavy customs bond requirement on shrimp import from India.