US raises anti-dumping duty on shrimp exports by India

India’s seafood sector is likely to take a hit with US department of commerce (USDOC) hiking the anti-dumping duty on shrimp exports from India by more than 100%.

USDOC on Wednesday issued the final results of the fifteenth administrative review of the anti-dumping duty order on frozen warm-water shrimp from India by fixing an anti-dumping duty rate of 7.15%. It was 3.06% after the final results of the 14th administrative review.

These determinations mean that US importers of Indian shrimp from companies subject to the administrative review will be asked to pay additional anti-dumping duties on merchandise imported between February 1, 2019, and January 31, 2020, and that, going forward, the companies will be subject to anti-dumping duty cash deposits rates at these levels for future shrimp imports

Frozen shrimp exports constitute almost 74.31 % of the value of India’s total seafood exports and the US actions could have a deleterious effect on the numerous aquaculture farms spread all over coastal India. Bulk of India’s frozen shrimps is exported to the US.

Under the US Tariff Act of 1930, all tariffs come automatically under review every five years and the anti-dumping duty on shrimp imports from India, China, Brazil, Thailand and Vietnam imposed from 2005 would be revoked or continued on the basis of a fresh evaluation.

US-based Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA) is the original petitioners against India and several other nations in the shrimp import issue. They allege that that lower-priced, pond-raised shrimps from Brazil, China, Ecuador, India, Thailand and Vietnam were hurting the US industry. The US mostly harvests shrimp from the sea.

SSA maintains that the dumping margins in administrative reviews were determined after USDOC repeatedly selected a tiny subset of Indian exporters for individual examination and has allowed hundreds of other Indian shrimp exporters to ship to US with confidence that their own pricing practices will not be evaluated. This, in turn, has encouraged many Indian shrimp companies to increase their presence in the US market with aggressive pricing strategies ,SSA reports.

Seafood exports from India declined in both volume and value terms during the last fiscal mostly on account of sluggish demand due to Covid to $5.96 billion.