Shrimp Imports Increase Despite Confirmed Antidumping

March 2007

The U.S. shrimp industry continues to be concerned about expanding imports of certain frozen shrimp from Brazil, China, Ecuador, India, Thailand, and Vietnam. In 2003, the Department of Commerce (DOC) initiated an antidumping investigation. A final determination was made in 2004, finding that the U.S. shrimp industry was materially injured by imports of non-canned shrimp and prawns from the countries listed.

In a new development involving procedures the U.S. uses to calculate antidumping duties, the WTO appellate body issued a ruling in favor of Ecuador’s request on January 30, 2007 against the methods used by the U.S. to calculate shrimp antidumping duties.

In December 2003, the Southern Shrimp Alliance (composed of shrimp industry groups from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Texas, and South Carolina) filed antidumping petitions with the Department of Commerce (DOC) and the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) alleging that imports of certain frozen and canned warmwater shrimp from Brazil, China, Ecuador, India, Thailand, and Vietnam were being sold at less than fair value and were materially injuring the domestic shrimp industry. Following an affirmative determination of dumping by the DOC (with antidumping margins ranging from 1.97 percent to 82.27 percent), the ITC determined in January 2005, that the U.S. shrimp industry was materially injured by imports of non-canned shrimp and prawns from the countries listed (imports of canned warm-water shrimp and prawns were found to be negligible, thus canned products were dropped from the investigations).

In April 2005, the ITC announced that it would conduct changed circumstances reviews of its antidumping injury determinations regarding imports of shrimp from India and Thailand. In November 2005, after conducting changed circumstances reviews, the ITC determined that revoking the antidumping duty orders on shrimp and prawns from India and Thailand would be likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of material injury. As a result, the antidumping duties on imports of these products from India and Thailand remain in place.

In 2006 several countries have requested WTO dispute settlement consultations regarding the U.S. antidumping measures on frozen warmwater shrimp; particularly the amended U.S. customs bond directive and the DOC’s zeroing methodology. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) guidelines for continuous bond amounts for antidumping and countervailing duty cases involving agriculture/aquaculture products are based on a company's potential duty liability using the value of imports for the previous year, largely in an effort to resolve the issue of uncollected AD/CV duties regarding such products.

Zeroing means that when sales prices in the United States are higher than market values in the exporting country, and no dumping has taken place, the DOC eliminates, or "zeroes" these sales out, rather than averaging them into (and thereby lowering) dumping calculations. On January 30, 2007 the WTO appellate body issued a ruling in favor of Ecuador against the methods used by the U.S. to calculate shrimp antidumping duties (particularly the practice of zeroing).

U.S. imports of investigated shrimp from the six investigated countries were valued at $2.4 billion in 2006, up 18 percent from 2005 imports. Total 2006 U.S. shrimp imports from the world were valued at $4.1 billion, up 13 percent over 2005 imports.

U.S. shrimp landings in 2005 were valued at over $408 million, down from $447 million in 2003. U.S. shrimp exports totaled $74 million in 2005 and increased to $76 million in 2006.

For more information, contact Reed A. Blauer at Reed.Blauer@usda.gov
 

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