The Commerce Department justified its position with the claim that companies from China and Vietnam are “dumping” shrimp on the U.S. market—that is, selling goods at artificially low prices in order to capture market share.

On November 30, U.S. trade officials announced their “final determination” ratifying a July 6 decision to impose tariffs on shrimp imports from these two countries. They maintained the 113 percent tariff placed on shrimp from China, but lowered the tax on Vietnamese shrimp from 93 to 26 percent.

Washington’s protectionist moves will have a substantial effect on these industries in these two countries. Fish farming is Vietnam’s second-largest export product, and about half of its seafood exports go to the United States.

Before the suit, China and Vietnam together supplied about half the shrimp imported into the United States. According to Alabama’s Mobile Register, this share has since declined by more than 60 percent.

Penalizing state-run industries in those two workers states, a separate, lower rate was set for companies that “demonstrated an absence of government control from their export activities.” A tariff of 55 percent was set for 35 such companies in China, and one Chinese company was exempt. Thirty-two Vietnamese companies were slapped with tariffs of “only” 4-5 percent.

The U.S International Trade Commission is scheduled to make a final determination in January. If it agrees with the decision of the Commerce Department it will issue an antidumping duty order and instruct U.S. Customs to collect cash deposits on shrimp imports.

The case was initiated when the Ad Hoc Shrimp Trade Action Committee—a boat owners and shrimp processors group from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas—filed antidumping petitions with the International Trade Commission and the Department of Commerce in December last year. The petitions claimed that shrimp imports from Brazil, China, Ecuador, India, Thailand, and Vietnam cost U.S. companies $2.4 billion.

The Louisiana state government has contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to help cover legal expenses for the effort.

Exporters from these countries have captured a greater share of the U.S. shrimp market in the last few years. The petitions cited statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau stating that import volumes from these six countries rose by about 70 percent between 2000 and 2002, while import prices declined about 28 percent. According to Mobile Register, they provide about 75 percent of the shrimp consumed in the United States.

The U.S. shrimp fishing companies claim this has caused a decline in prices they receive on the domestic market by 45 percent. But consumer prices for shrimp have risen, not declined, during the same period, which has meant higher profits for U.S. distributors.

Chinese imports have been a major target of “antidumping” duties by Washington. In addition to the decision on shrimp, the U.S. Commerce Department announced three other “final determinations” of dumping in November: against crepe paper products from China, violet pigment from India and China, and wooden furniture from China.  
 
 
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