Fifth review of shrimp anti-dumping duty begins

The US Department of Commerce (DoC) has initiated the fifth round of administrative review (5th AR) of anti-dumping duty imposed on Indian shrimp imports and has listed 203 Indian seafood export companies for the review.

DoC has initiated the review of imports from Brazil and Thailand also. The department will limit the number of mandatory respondents to three or four for detailed examination of their exports to the US. These respondents will be selected on the basis of the data of US Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The final results of the review would be announced in February 2011. Announcing the results of the 4th AR, DoC had increased the average duty to 2.67 per cent from 0.79 per cent on March 10.

This came as a blow to the Indian seafood export industry as it was expecting a reduction in duty.

So the 5th AR will be crucial for the Indian seafood export industry. The Indian marine export sector hoped that the rate would be lowered below 0.50 per cent (de minimis) leading to nil duty. Below 0.50 per cent is calculated as nil duty. But DoC has decided to enhance the duty sharply which eventually may lead to a sharp reduction in exports to the US.