There is a strong likelihood that Vietnam will win its case against the US in the WTO suit, a VASEP official contends. (Photo:Seafoodfromvietnam/ FIS)

Shrimp exporters take US to WTO

VIET NAM
Thursday, February 04, 2010, 02:20 (GMT + 9)

Vietnam has presented a case against US anti-dumping duties on its shrimp exports to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Vietnamese shrimp exporters now pay anti-dumping duties ranging from 0-26 per cent to the US. Shrimp exports yielded USD 1.5 billion last year.

Said exporters have complained about the US’s method of calculating anti-dumping duties, or zeroing, in the past. Zeroing has been criticised repeatedly by WTO courts and rejected by all other WTO members, Reuters reports.

"The WTO has concluded that the US was wrong in applying the zeroing method in precedent cases. I can see high possibility of Vietnam winning the case," said Nguyen Huu Dung, deputy chairman of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP).

Dung also believes that Vietnam will gain helpful experience in international trade litigation from fighting a WTO case.

Vietnam is currently seeking consultations with the US, the first formal stage in a dispute, according to documents filed by Vietnam with the WTO.

If the parties cannot resolve the dispute through bilateral consultations in 60 days, Vietnam can ask the WTO to set up a panel to rule on the case.

Vietnam is appealing on three points: the zeroing method, the mandatory security payment and method of defining the dumping margin for voluntary defendants and the obligation of a country-wide rate. If the US agrees that these methods and regulations are unfair, the complaint will be settled and the US will have to change practices and pay back the duties it has collected from Vietnamese exporters.

Vietnam exported 190,000 tonnes of shrimp in 2009, up 7 per cent in volume and 1 per cent in value from the year prior, according to VASEP estimates. Vietnam’s other main markets include Japan, South Korea, China and the European Union (EU).

Representing shrimp fishers and processors in eight US states, the Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA) won anti-dumping duties on imports from Brazil, China, Ecuador, India, Thailand and Vietnam in 2004 after these countries were found guilty of unfair pricing practices by a US Commerce Dpartment  investigation.

But since then, annual US administrative reviews have weakened the duties and US shrimpers are now seeing historically low prices.

Because US duties on Thai shrimp had such little impact, the SSA recently negotiated for the Thai shrimp industry to pay US shrimpers at least USD 100 million to have the duties dropped. However, the American Shrimp Processors Association (ASPA) is urging the Commerce Department to block the measure.

Related articles:

- Govt mulls lifting Thai shrimp tariffs
- VASEP calls US zeroing method 'unfair'

By Natalia Real
[email protected]
www.seafood.media

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