US to continue dumping duty on Indian shrimps

The US International Trade Commission has decided that revoking anti-dumping duty on shrimp imports from India would be injurious to the US seafood industry. The decision to continue with the anti-dumping duties came at the end of the sunset review which commenced on January 4, 2010. According to the US law, the US Department of Commerce is mandated to initiate the sunset review just before the fifth anniversary of the initial imposition of the duties.

The sunset review, which had two principal components, was meant to review the whole gamut of anti-dumping duties. While the US Department of Commerce was to conduct a separate review to ascertain whether the revoking of duties would result in fresh bout of dumping by Indian seafood companies, the US ITC was to examine whether removal of these duties would prove injurious to US seafood industry.

At the end of the review if either of these agencies concluded that revocation of the duties would not be detrimental to the interests of the US, the duties could be lifted. Now, in a 5-1 vote the US ITC has concluded that revoking of anti-dumping duties would be injurious to the larger interest of the US seafood industry. The agenda and information requirements of the two review institutions are different with the US Department of Commerce primarily concerned with the import aspects while the ITC would explore larger industry issues such as the capacity built up in India, pricing and alternate markets.

The Seafood Exporters Association of India, the nodal body of seafood exporters from India, has been fighting against the imposition of anti-dumping duty since February 1, 2005, when these duties were first introduced. Reacting to the decision of the sunset review, sources in SEAI said that the continuing imposition was unwarranted and would harm India's $2 billion seafood exports.

However, through successive administrative reviews, the anti-dumping duties imposed on Indian shrimp have been coming down over the years from as high as 10.17 per cent in 2005 to 1.69 per cent currently. With the falling trend in anti-dumping duties, seafood exports to the US have also been picking up. The US was the second biggest seafood export destination during the first nine months of the current fiscal, accounting for 17.43 per cent of the total value.

Exports to the US had registered a remarkable growth during the recent past and the seafood community was looking forward to a revocation of the duties to build on the demand from that major export destination.

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