Panel to study anti-dumping duty on shrimp

Upholding India and Thailand request, World Trade Organization (WTO) has constituted a panel to examine the anti-dumping duty and customs bond imposed by the US government against the import shrimp from these countries.

The dispute settlement body of WTO has resolved to appoint the panel so that several rounds of discussion with these countries were futile.

India had formally lodged a complaint on June 6 this year against USA as US Commerce Department had imposed 10.17 percent anti - dumping duty on shrimp imported from India without adhering to 'zeroing' principles of anti -dumping duty.

The US government had imposed the duty by allowing a petition filed by Southern Shrimp Alliance [SSA], an organization of local shrimp manufacturers. The US act had seriously hit India's export to that country as US is the second largest importer of marine products from India.

The duty was also imposed against a host of other countries like Thailand, China, Brazil, Ecuador and Vietnam in July 2004. US customs had also imposed continuous bond requirement on importers of certain frozen warm water shrimp from these countries.

On 1 February 2005 the United States imposed definitive anti-dumping measures and required importers to make cash deposit equal to the estimated weighted average of dumping margins.

So all importers who wish to continue imports from India and other nations were forced to comply with the continuous bond requirement after the imposition of anti-dumping duty.