The Hindu Business Line : Seafood industry hopes US will lift dumping duty on shrimps

, HAVING made successful presentations on the impact of the December 26 tsunami, followed by field visits to showcase its impacts on the coastal villages of Nagapattinam and Cuddalore, the seafood industry is optimistic of the outcome of the US-based International Trade Commission (ITC) five-member team's visit to India.

The team is on a six-day fact-finding mission to this country to assess whether the anti-dumping duty on Indian shrimp should be removed after the present "Changed Circumstances Review".

"Thankfully, the officials at Cuddalore and Nagapattinam were able to make visual presentation of the destruction caused by the tsunami with slides and transparencies. Though the remnants of the impact are still visible first-hand, the visually documented evidence of the devastation had a more telling impact," sources in the industry said.

Earlier, representatives from the Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI), aquaculture farmers association, hatchery association and fishermen association presented their case before the ITC team, narrating how the tsunami had impacted their lives and livelihood and its aftermath. Individual representatives enumerated the impact of the tsunami on the fishing gear and boats, hatchery, aquaculture farms and processing plants.

On Wednesday, the ITC team is expected to hold meetings with representatives of leading NGOs who took part in the relief operations in wake of the tsunami. They are expected to get a first-hand information of its impact from the relief workers, who were on the spot immediately after the tsunami struck.

On Thursday, the team is expected to visit some of the seafood/shrimp processing factories and interact with the staff, gain fresh insights on the pre- and post-tsunami impact on Indian seafood industry, sources in the Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI) said. The team will round off its visit with meetings with officials and industry representatives on Friday and leave for the US in the early hours of Saturday, the sources added.

While expressing optimism over the outcome of the visit, the industry said that much more remains to be done before the final verdict is out by October 31.

Representatives of the industry - Marine Products Export Development Authority, scientific community and government officials - are expected to present their case in the US during the coming month. "Though the final verdict will be out in couple of months time, we have a long way to go to reach there," SEAI sources said.

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