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The Sixth Administrative Review on shrimp exports to the US has fixed a 2.51 per cent anti-dumping duty on Indian shrimp consignments, up from 1.69 per cent awarded last year.
However, what is noteworthy of the latest review is that another company, Falcon Marine, has been awarded de-minimus status - they have been awarded duty of 0.5 per cent or less, sources in the Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI) said.
Earlier, Devi Seafood had already come under the sub-minimus status. While there have been a small increase in the rate of duty for the country as a whole, SEAI sources said that it will not have any serious implication for trade.
The findings of the Sixth Administrative Review were announced in the US on February 29 and India is still to get the detailed report.
What is salutary, SEAI source pointed out, is that Indian shrimp exports to the US should be out of ‘zeroing' at the end of the Seventh Administrative Review period – February 2012 to January 2013.
What is zeroing
While it is inevitable that every country would be forced to sell a very small portion of its export consignment beneath fair-value price mainly under distress conditions, the practice of the US Customs to identify these specific consignments and charge anti-dumping duty on all shipments is known as zeroing.
The World Trade Organisation, in recent rulings ,has declared zeroing as an illegal practice under the WTO guidelines as it was found violating several international and multilateral trade rules.
The removal of zeroing will be welcomed by the Indian trade and is expected to strengthen the country's shrimp exports further.
India's seafood exports increased to Rs 12,191 crore during April-December 2011, with shrimp exports contributing the bulk.
Frozen shrimp
Frozen shrimp exports constituted over 51 per cent of the total value of seafood exports during the period. What is further noteworthy is the fact that US was the single most important shrimp export destination during the period.
The US accounted for 33 per cent of India's total shrimp exports and realised 42 per cent of the shrimp export realisations.
The low rates of anti-dumping duty and positive moves on zeroing would have far reaching positive impact on India's seafood exports.
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