Dumping case: shrimp exporters engage US law firm

Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI) has appointed a Washington DC-based law firm, Garvey Schubert Barer, to fight possible anti-dumping cases that could be filed against Indian shrimp exports.

Trade sources said that an anti-dumping petition by the shrimp farmers in the US was likely to be filed on December 30, before the Department of Commerce.

However it is still not clear whether India will be included in the initial list of countries against whom the anti-dumping petition will be filed.

Indian shrimp exporters said they were confident that US producers will not use anti-dumping measures against Indian exports.

They said they would be able to ward off any anti-dumping duty as domestic shrimp farmers in the US were mostly likely to target countries exporting the Vannamei variety of shrimps.

Speaking to Business Standard, Abraham J Tharakan, president of SEAI, said, "The threat for domestic shrimp farmers in US comes from China, Thailand, Indonesia and Ecuador. India s shrimp exports is predominantly Black Tiger and Scampi varieties, which are not cultivated in the US. The US law firm has been appointed only as a precautionary measure".

K Jose Cyriac, chairman of Marine Products Export Development Authority, pointed out that the anti-dumping duty threat has been looming over Indian exports for the last year and a half.

"We have some unconfirmed information that the domestic shrimp cultivators will be filed on December 30 this year," he added.

Trade sources said domestic shrimp farmers in the US harvested their annual seasonal catch from the Gulf of Mexico.

Shrimp farming techniques used in the US were far behind those in use in Asian countries and this had pushed up the cost of production in that country.

The US trade association, Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA), was on weak grounds in their case against imports from India, sources added.

P K Ramachandran, president of The Waterbase Ltd of the Thapar Group, said Indian exporters did not sell shrimp in the US at prices below the price sold in India, nor did they sell below cost.

The US petitioners would have to prove either of these two to get an anti-dumping duty on exports from India.

He said US producers were likely to go ahead and file the petition, but it was unlikely India would be in the list of countries targeted in the case.

Domestic production of shrimps in the US was only 12-15 per cent of consumption and over 80 per cent of the shrimp consumed in the US was imported. It was unlikely that US producers would be able to get anti-dumping duty levied on imports, Ramachandran said.

The duty would push up the price of shrimp in the US market and hurt consumers. Costlier shrimp would also hurt processing and other units connected to the imported shrimp trade.

US shrimp farmers would have to fight opposition from American Shrimp Distributors Association (ASDA), which is a collective body representing US shrimp processing units. ASDA members processed imported shrimp and represented a thriving business interest.

Any anti dumping duty would hurt them and they would be resisting possible moves to slap levies on imports, a source pointed out.

The total consumption of shrimps in the US was estimated to be around one billion pounds in weight. Thailand supplied close to 20 per cent of this, followed by China at 10 per cent, Vietnam at 9 per cent and India at 7.5 per cent.

Indian shrimp exports to US had risen sharply in recent years as demand in the US market has recorded strong growth. In response, Indian exporters had diverted shrimp exports from Japan to US.

Price realisation in the US market was better than realisation from shipments to Japan. Indian shrimp exports to US had doubled and exports to Japan halved in the last five years.