The Hindu Business Line : US shrimp dumping duty faulty: WTO panel

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Chennai Feb. 2 A dispute settlement panel of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has determined that the US has been "inconsistent" in imposing anti-dumping duties on frozen warm water shrimp from countries such as Ecuador, Brazil, China, India, Vietnam and Thailand. The panel's ruling came on a complaint filed by Ecuador with the WTO Dispute Settlement Body in November last.

India stands to benefit as it had enrolled itself as one with third party interest to the dispute. Such enrolment, under WTO rules, will help an affected country to reap the benefits of a ruling that goes in favour of the complainant.

India, on the other hand, has requested for consultations from the WTO body on the Washington rule stipulating exporters to execute bonds for the value of shrimp shipments to the US. Trade Department officials of the US have already conveyed their intention to solve the dispute mutually.

Ecuador, in its complaint, said the US had adopted a wrong approach in going for "zeroing" while calculating the dumping margins. It had cited a WTO ruling last year on a dispute between the US and EU.

"Zeroing" is a practice that does not consider margins that are seen as negative dumping or no dumping. These negative margins are simply set off as zero and as per a WTO ruling, "zeroing" generally inflates the margins calculated and can, in some instances, turn a negative margin of dumping into a positive margin.

The case brought before the WTO panel was tricky since the US said it was not contesting Ecuador's claim. An agreement was also reached between the US and Ecuador that the latter would not make any claim with regard to the dumping calculated for one of the Ecuadorian firm, Expalsa.

India, being among the third party nations to the dispute, said the panel should make an objective assessment and send a clear signal that the "zeroing" was totally unacceptable under the WTO system.

In its ruling, the panel urged the Dispute Settlement Body to request the US to bring its anti-dumping measures in conformity with its obligations under the Anti-Dumping Agreement of WTO.

An important feature of the dispute was that the burden of proof was with Ecuador and it came out with details and worksheets on how the US had tabulated the dumping margins.

The panel, in its finding, said a prima facie case of violation in respect of the final determination, the amended final determination and the anti-dumping order had been established with regard to the tariff imposed on shrimp imports from Ecuador and other countries. The US had imposed the anti-dumping duty on various countries in 2004. Imports from Ecuador attracted duty ranging between 2.35 per cent and 4.48 per cent. For imports from India, the duty ranged from 4.94 per cent to 15.36 per cent.

More Stories on : Aquaculture | Anti-dumping | WTO

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