US to review shrimp anti-dumping duty

The US department of commerce will review the imposition of anti-dumping duty on shrimp imported from various countries including India. This is following a review petition filed by Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA), an organisation of shrimp producers in the US.

According to sources at the Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI) the final verdict on the review petition would be announced some time in the current year after hearing selected exporters from various countries including India.

In line with an earlier petition filed by the SSA, the department of commerce had imposed anti-dumping duty on shrimp imported from India at the rate of 10.17 per cent. It had also imposed duty on import from China, Taiwan, Thailand, Equador and Brazil at various rates in January 2005 saying the lower price of imported shrimp had caused serious problems to American shrimp trading.

A team of experts from the US had visited India in order to study the impact of the December 2004 tsunami on the Indian marine export sector. Their report was been mainly unfavourable for the Indian exporters. Hence the US department had confirmed anti-dumping duty at the rate of 10.17 per cent.

The SSA, on its part, had submitted the review petition in order to enhance the duty, saying it would salvage the domestic shrimp producers. The petition had been filed against 347 exporters from India. The US department had sought export data from these exporters. SEAI sources said that 150 exporters had filed the data before the expiry date of the release on April 28, 2006.

It is likely that those exporters who had not applied with the department may be imposed with penal duty at the rate of 82-110 per cent according to information available from the department.

The imposition of anti-dumping duty had affected Indian exports to the US. India's total marine products export during the last fiscal was worth $1.5 billion (around Rs 7,000 crore) of which shrimp comprised around 70 per cent.

SEAI sources said the US authorities' decision would have strong impact on marine products export from India. No one is quite really sure if exports will rise or fall. In either way it will affect the export industry of India, said a senior official.

A J Tharakan, president, SEAI said that exporters had already filed the information regarding their exports and the department is in the process of analysing the data. He added that there were only 105 exporters who are actively into exports though the complaint is against 347 exporters. "Most of them are non-existing and we will strongly argue before the US department with the relevant data. We are not dumping shrimp in the US market," he said.