Import penalties possible
NEW ORLEANS – The U.S. Commerce Department is expected to decide today if China and Vietnam have been dumping shrimp at unfair prices on the American market.
If the department finds that China and Vietnam shrimpers have been selling canned and frozen shrimp at unfair prices on the U.S. market, duties could be imposed on shrimp imports from those countries.
A separate decision is also expected later this month on whether sanctions could be imposed on shrimp imports from Thailand, Brazil, Ecuador and India. China and Vietnam were considered separately because they are not free market-based economies.
The department’s action comes after the U.S. International Trade Commission in February unanimously ruled that imports were a factor in depressing U.S. shrimp prices, a necessary finding for an antidumping petition to be successful.
Southern shrimpers and processors — struggling from rock-bottom prices since 2001 — filed the antidumping petition on Dec. 31, seeking duties on shrimp from the six nations.
In all, duties would affect about $2.3 billion in shrimp trade, and it could jolt the market in America’s favorite seafood.
“It’s one of the largest cases ever filed. It’s against six countries around the world, there are thousands of companies,” said Eddie Gordon, president of the Southern Shrimp Alliance. His group, made up of eight Southern states, organized the petition.
“It’s almost like an economic war going on, and how do you compete?” Gordon said.
Prices have been falling for both imported and domestic shrimp.
The Southern Shrimp Alliance said government statistics show shrimp from the six countries targeted in the petition fell from an average of $3.54 per pound in 2000 to $2.55 per pound in 2002. The group said domestic shrimp on average fell from $6.45 per pound to $4.77 per pound over the same period.
Fishermen and processors believe the only way to compete is by targeting the imports. They charge that imports are filled with harmful antibiotics and produced by cheap labor on gigantic shrimp farms.
By contrast, U.S. shrimpers still catch shrimp in the wild, burning through boat fuel. Shrimpers also complain that strict environmental rules to reduce by-catch waste and to save endangered sea turtles make their job a lot harder.
Besides the targeted nations, businesses that handle large amounts of imported shrimp — seafood distributors, restaurant chains, many large processors and supermarkets — have been the most vocal opponents of duties.
Shrimp retailers believe duties would hurt the market by driving up prices by as much as 44 percent.
Instead, they argue, the domestic shrimp fleet and processors need to adapt to foreign competition by cutting down on the number of boats and by developing new niche markets.