US lobby move stumps shrimp exporters

Dealing a blow to shrimp exports to the USA, the Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA), the original petitioners in the anti-dumping case, pruned its list of exporters for the ongoing second administrative review, deleting 410 companies from India, Brazil, China, Ecuador, Thailand and Vietnam. Of the companies deleted, 17 are from India.

The SSA's move has put the 17 domestic shrimp exporters in a spot, as they face an enhanced 82.30 per cent anti-dumping duty, making it unviable for them to export to the USA.

Of the 17 companies, only 5 have continued to export shrimp to the USA and they would be badly hurt with the SSA's action. These exporters had not applied for the second administrative review, which is being conducted by the US Department of Commerce (DoC).

The exporters are at the receiving end, as the last date to apply for the review has already lapsed. They will, hence, be subjected to a higher anti-dumping duty, with no recourse to the review.

After the first review, the DoC had raised the anti-dumping duty for Indian and Brazilian exporters, even as it cut the duty for four other countries. Post-review, Indian exporters have to pay a slightly higher duty of 10.54 per cent from the earlier 10.17 per cent.

However, for the 17 exporters, whose names have been struck off the SSA's list, the anti-dumping duty is very high at 82.30 per cent. Besides, they have no recourse to the review either, as the last date for the same has lapsed.

A section of the exporters here said the planned and earnest move by domestic exporters to present the case before the DoC at the second administrative review had upset the plans of SSA, leading it to delete the names of exporters. The SSA had mobilised a lot of money from exporters, who had wished to stay away from the cumbersome review.

Interestingly, the SSA's list submitted for the second review was the same as that presented for the first review. The list contained the names of 250 domestic companies, of which only 44 companies were actually engaged in business with the USA. The SSA had simply filed the same list that they had submitted for the first administrative review, said exporters.