The Hindu Business Line : India to file brief in US shrimp dumping case on Monday

IN response to the US Commerce Department taking cognisance of the shrimp anti-dumping petition filed before it and proceeding with the investigation, the Indian side is expected to file its brief before the US International Trade Commission on Monday, Mr Abraham Tharakan, Chairman of the Seafood Exporters' Association of India, told Business Line.

Mr Tharakan told over telephone from Washington that there was perfect coordination and total cooperation among all the countries - Brazil, Ecuador, China, Thailand, Vietnam and India

Recognising the gravity and serious implications behind the petition, the ambassadors and senior representatives from the respective embassies of the six affected countries met in Vietnam two weeks ago, in an effort to form a common agenda, a senior source in the Union Government said.

Ms Lizbeth Levinson, senior partner of the legal firm Garvey Schubert and Barer, is expected to file the Indian brief before the US ITC on Monday. The brief will take into consideration the grievances of the shrimp cultivators, fishermen, processors and exporters from India and try and protect their interest in the US courts.

Neither the cultured shrimp nor the captured varieties of India were in any way similar to the US shrimp and there should be no conflict in price or in market share, Mr Tharakan pointed out. And the Indian shrimp imports had not caused any material injury to US shrimp producers. On these counts, exemptions would be sought for Indian shrimp imports to the US, Mr Tharakan added.

The other countries are also pursuing similar lines of argument and have gathered substantial volume of data to support their respective cases.

According to figures available from the ITC Data Web, Thailand was the largest shrimp exporter to the US in the first nine months of last year, followed by Vietnam, India and China. The contributions from Ecuador and Brazil were considerably lower.

The reverse order seems to be true in the case of recommended anti-dumping duty sought to be imposed on exporting countries. Brazil, which accounts for the lowest volume and value of shrimp exports to the US, has been recommended the stiffest duty ranging between 32 per cent and 329 per cent. It was followed by Ecuador, China, India, Vietnam and Thailand in a decreasing order of anti-dumping duty proposed to be imposed.

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