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Malaysian farmed shirmp. (Photo Credit: ETP)
DOC sets high duties on Malaysian shrimp imports
(UNITED STATES, 5/31/2013)
The US Commerce Department (DOC) this week established preliminary duties of up to nearly 63 per cent on shrimp from Malaysia to compensate for the country’s government subsidies. Meanwhile, the DOC set much lower duties on shrimp from China, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Ecuador.
Preliminary duties on Malaysia range from 10.8 per cent to 62.74 per cent while other suppliers were subject to duties ranging from 2.09 per cent to 11.32 per cent. No duties will be imposed on products from Ecuador and Indonesia.
The duties on all countries except Ecuador and Indonesia averaged nearly 9 per cent on a trade-weighted basis, said Elizabeth Drake, a partner at the law firm Stewart & Stewart, who was the lead counsel for the the Coalition of Gulf Shrimp Industries (COGSI).
If the final levels are similar, "countervailing duties of more than USD 200 million would be assessed against importers. We believe these results would be dramatic in the market and would be very positive for domestic producers whose operating margins are often razor thin," Drake continued, Reuters reports.
“We have documented more than one hundred different government shrimp subsidy programmes across these seven nations,” she added.
All duties could be revised this August once the department completes an investigation.
Shrimp fishers and processors in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida and South Carolina all welcomed the news of the duties after filing a petition last year seeking government protection against foreign subsidized cheaper imports.
"The long-term survival of the entire Gulf shrimp economy from harvesters to processors depends on the outcome of this case,” said David Veal, executive director of COGSI.
Eddy Hayes, counsel to COGSI and partner at the firm of Leake Andersson, explained that counteracting these countries’ subsidies is necessary to level the playing field for US shrimp producers.
Last year, the US imported more than USD 3 billion worth of shrimp from the exporting countries in question: 122,000 tonnes from Thailand, 71,000 tonnes from Indonesia, 65,000 tonnes from India, 72,000 tonnes from Ecuador, 38,000 tonnes from Vietnam, 19,000 tonnes from Malaysia and 14,000 tonnes from China.
Related articles:
- US will not apply countervailing duties on Ecuadorian shrimp
- Shrimp sector proves it was not involved in shrimp dumping
- DOC will continue investigation into alleged shrimp subsidies
By Natalia Real
[email protected]
www.seafood.media
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