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U.S. upholds tariffs on shrimp imports
WASHINGTON (AP)--The Bush administration on Nov. 30 upheld the imposition of penalty tariffs on shrimp imports from China and Vietnam, handing a victory to beleaguered U.S. shrimp producers.
The action affirmed with slight modifications a preliminary ruling by the Commerce Department's International Trade Administration last summer. The penalty tariffs have been collected by border agents since July.
The department is scheduled to make a final decision on shrimp imports from four other countries--Brazil, Ecuador, India and Thailand--in late December.
Together, the six countries provide about 75 percent of the shrimp that Americans eat. U.S. food distributors contend that the penalty tariffs will drive up shrimp prices at restaurants and grocery stores.
In the decision Nov. 30, the government set duties on Chinese exports of frozen and canned warm-water shrimp at levels ranging from 27.9 percent to 112.8 percent. Vietnamese shrimp exports will be hit with duties ranging from 4.1 percent to 25.8 percent.
The tariffs were imposed because a government investigation found the shrimp from those nations was being sold in the U.S. market at unfairly low prices, a practice known as dumping.
The ruling came in a case brought by the Southern Shrimp Alliance, which has been dealing with rock-bottom prices for shrimp since 2001. It alleged that the U.S. industry was on the brink of destruction because of the flood of cheap foreign shrimp.
Foreigner shrimp producers, however, have denied that they are selling shrimp at artificially low prices in an effort to capture the U.S. market. They contend that the United States needs foreign imports because the domestic supply is not large enough to meet demand.
Officials from Brazil have said they are studying whether to bring a case against the United States before the World Trade Organization, contending that the penalty duties violate international trade rules.
The eight states represented in the Southern Shrimp Alliance are Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas.
The cases against all six countries will go back to the U.S. International Trade Commission for a final ruling early next year on the issue of whether shrimp imports are harming the domestic industry. If, as expected, the commission upholds its preliminary finding of harm, the antidumping tariffs will become final.
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