Duty on shrimp export raises a stink in US

The US Commerce Department's ruling on the anti-dumping duty on shrimps, exported from India and other countries, has created a controversy in the US with a section of the media demanding a judicial probe and Congressional review into matter.

The Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA), which is a party to the case against shrimp exporters for their unethical business attitude, has kept aside many exporting companies from the list of firms chosen for the departmental review after receiving bribe. These companies are mainly from India, Thailand and Vietnam.

From India, for example, 347 companies had been selected for departmental review of which a major chunk did not exist. But 20 major exporters are avoided.

Indian majors like Hindustan Lever, Falcon Marine and Liberty Group are included in the list. At the same time, a large number of companies from Thailand, Vietnam and Ecuador are omitted. Less surprisingly, non-existing companies and firms which have stopped exporting shrimps also find a place in the list.

A industry website, Seafood.com, has displayed the example of a Thai company, Siam Cement Company, which is not into exporting shrimps.

It is alleged that more than Rs 20 crore were collected by the SSA as a bribe and the US media had demanded an enquiry into the episode. The US Commerce Department had imposed anti-dumping duty at various levels.

For India it is 10.17 per cent against a complaint by the SSA that import from India is harming the domestic shrimp industry. As per the review petition filed by the SSA, the US Commerce Department will finalise the rate in September this year.

According to the website over the past three months the SSA had collected millions of dollars from exporters to help them avoid administrative review of shrimp tariff.

The decision of commerce department to randomise the selection of companies has helped SSA to receive bribe by presenting the department with hundreds of overseas companies, many of them simply do not exist and some of whom were not even shrimp exporters.

When the department indicated that they would chose random companies from the list submitted by SSA it had already created a threat to legitimate exporters.

The department had no objective criteria to determine whether a company was representative of a country's export or not. As a result, many companies have been willing to pay bribes and secret payments to get out from the difficult situation.

The US media had asked the department to adopt a separate selection process based on volume and importance in market or establish a clear criteria for inclusion in the list of administrative review.

Meanwhile shrimp exporting companies across the world are awaiting the decision of the US Commerce Department which will a bearing on their business with the US firms.