US law firm arrives to aid Indian shrimp exporters

Lawyers from GSP Associates, a US law firm hired by the Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI), have come to Visakhapatnam to guide Indian shrimp exporters answer a 400-page questionnaire sent by the US International Trade Commission.

The SEAI had hired GSP Associates to mount a legal fight against the US government's proposed move to impose anti-dumping duty on Indian shrimp imports.

SEAI has collected close to Rs 7.5 crore to cover the legal expenses. Based on a petition by the American shrimp producers, the US government has proposed imposition of anti-dumping duty on exports of Indian shrimp.

The US Department of Commerce feels that there is a prima facie case for anti-dumping duty being levied, and has decided to analyse the data from select Indian shrimp exporters to find out if there were exports at less than the fair value.

The US International Trade Commission, a self-governing entity of the US Department of Commerce, had selected three Indian shrimp exporting companies for test study and data analysis. The companies include Vizag-based Devi Seafoods and Nekkanti Seafoods, and Bangalore-based HLL.

The US International Trade Commission has already sent a questionnaire of about 400 pages to these three shrimp exporting companies. To assist the Indian companies on filling up this huge questionnaire, two lawyers of GSP Associates "" Ronald Wisla and ELizabeth Levinson "" came to Visakhapatnam today to assist Devi Seafoods, and another lawyer Mike Dominch came a week earlier to Vizag to guide Nekkanti Seafoods.

"The three companies need to submit their data to the US International Trade Commission before 31 March. Actually, Indian exports are not being sold at low prices in the US when compared to exports from countries like Japan, Canada and other European nations. Therefore, we are expecting no anti-dumping duties to be levied on Indian shrimp exports," Kishore Kumar, vice-president of SEAI, Andhra Pradesh region, told Business Standard.

If the US imposes anti-dumping duty on shrimp imports, Andhra Pradesh shrimp producers will be the worst affected. "Out of the total Rs 2,000-crore marine exports from Andhra Pradesh last year, around 93-95 per cent were shrimps. Also, 40-45 per cent of the state's shrimp exports are to the US market. If an anti-dumping duty is imposed on these exports, it will cause great hardship for shrimp producers in the state," he said.