US starts review of duty on shrimp imports

The department issued orders to initiate review of exports of 43 companies from Brazil, 81 from Ecuador, 336 from India and 165 from Thailand. The final results of this review is expected to be issued by February 2009, according to a notification issued by the US department.

According to the notification, the department would select some of the companies from the list, published as mandatory respondents of the review, in order to limit the number of respondents for the review.

The country-specific average duty for India had been reduced to 1.09 per cent from 7.22 per cent in the second edition of the review.

Ecuador has the lowest country average rate of duty at 0.64 per cent, while Promarisco SA, an exporting house of the country, has 0.46 per cent duty, the lowest across the world.

All the companies in Vietnam attract 25.76 per cent duty. Devi Sea Foods of India attracts a duty of 0.70 per cent while Falcon Marine Exports, another mandatory respondent of the review had been awaded 1.69 per cent duty. But India is having the highest adverse facts available duty at a rate of 110.90 per cent.

127 Indian companies now attract this rate which virtually make them impossible to trade with the US.