The Hindu Business Line : Shrimp dumping duty: US team to assess situation

A FIVE-MEMBER team from the US-based International Trade Commission (ITC) will visit the tsunami-ravaged Southern and Eastern coasts of India during August 19-27 to assess whether the anti-dumping duty enforced on Indian shrimp imports into the US should continue.

The team is set to assess the ground realities and submit a final report by the end of August.

The team is scheduled to visit the coasts of Machilipatnam, Nagapattinam, Velankanni, Cuddalore, and some coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh, sources in the Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI) said.

They will not be visiting the Kerala coast, where the tsunami damages were localised.

The fact-finding team will also scrutinise the statistics provided by the industry, research institutions, and fishermen.

"A first-hand evaluation of the extensive damage wrought by the tsunami on the fishing community would help to strengthen the case for India. We are very hopeful that the changed circumstances review will be in our favour and the anti-dumping duties against the country would be dropped. The benefits will be felt not only on the exporters, but would be equally evident on the industry, shrimp farmer, and the fishermen," SEAI sources said.

Indian and Thai shrimp exports to the US, which are being assessed under the changed circumstances review, attract an anti-dumping duty of 10.2 per cent and 6.01 per cent.

But even before the team has set out on its mission, it has thrown up a controversy in the shrimp industry and fishing community of the US.

Welcoming the changed circumstances review, Mr Wally Stevens, Chairman of the Shrimp Task Force set up by the Consuming Industries Trade Action Coalition (CITAC), said: "We support the ITC's decision to investigate whether or not shrimp imports from India and Thailand still pose any kind of `threat' to the domestic shrimp industry."

He added that the statement by the Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA), a loose confederation of shrimp producing States, trawl boat owners, and operators, that they alone should not bear "the burden" of helping these countries, but that all Americans should share the burden of providing tsunami relief, rings hollow.

But the humble Indian shrimp farmer and fishermen seems to be gaining new friends in the US.

The SSA who had taken the Indian fishing community and exporters to the US courts have also come forward and expressed its concern for the Indian fishing community and the extensive damages caused in the wake of the tsunami.

"If the (US) shrimp importers were to pay the pre-2000 prices for shrimp, the shrimp farming communities affected by the tsunami would get 39 per cent more money to help restore their communities and anti-dumping duties would not be collected," said Mr Eddie Gordon, President of SSA, in a statement.

Since 2000, the volume of imported shrimp into the US has climbed but the average price per pound has fallen.

But he does not seem to be winning many friends among the fishermen in India. "With friends like these, who needs enemies," was the cryptic comment from seafood exporters.

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