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C.J. Punnathara

Kochi, July 12 The US Department of Commerce has placed an average anti-dumping duty for shrimp imports from India at 0.79 per cent. This ruling was based on the final report of the Third Administrative Review on shrimp imports from India and is in consonance with the interim report which was placed before the US Department of Commerce earlier. The ruling would be applicable to 153 shrimp exporters from India who participated in the review process.

Welcoming the announcement, the Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI) pointed out that there has been a sharp fall in the rates of anti-dumping duty from 10.17 per cent to 7.29 per cent at the end of the First Administrative Review, further to 1.69 per and now to 0.79 per cent at the end of the Third Review. The industry hoped that the whole process of charging anti-dumping duty on Indian shrimp exports would be wound by the end of the Fourth Review next year.

The mandatory respondents to the Third Review were Devi Seafoods and Falcon Marine exports whose books and accounts were rigorously scrutinised during the review period. While Falcon Marine was slapped with an anti-dumping duty of 0.79 per cent, Devi Seafoods was asked to pay just 0.39 per cent. Duty below 0.5 per cent is considered sub-minimus and the company is not entitled to pay dumping duty. Consequently, the country’s average duty was calculated based on Falcon Marine’s duty at 0.79 per cent.

While the Third Review was for the period from February 1, 2007 to January 31, 2008, the process of the Fourth Administrative Review is already on and the industry hoped to get a sub-minimus duty for the country as a whole.

The Fourth and Fifth Review could be termed the sunset reviews and the industry hoped to break free from the shackles which had constrained Indian shrimp exports ever since anti-dumping duties were imposed in August 2004. Among the six countries - China, Vietnam, Thailand, Brazil, Ecuador and India which were slapped with shrimp anti-dumping duty by the US administration, India enjoys the lowest levels of duty today.

However, the fall in Indian shrimp exports to the US continued and the country has lost its primacy in Indian seafood exports. According to the latest estimates of the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA), exports to the US fell by 10.18 per cent to $ 227.29 million in 2008-09, relegating the country to the fourth position in terms of value of exports, after EU, China and Japan.

Meanwhile, countries such as Thailand have been able to circumvent the deleterious impacts of the anti-dumping duty by focusing on value-added shrimp exports while Indian shrimp exports to the US is still dominated by lower value bulk exports of frozen shrimp.

More Stories on : Aquaculture | Anti-dumping

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