The US Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA) has decided to withdraw its proposal to investigate 410 shrimp exporters from six countries, including Vietnam, which were defendants in anti-dumping lawsuit, during the second administrative review.
The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) has quoted Seafood.com as saying that SSA, the plaintiff in the anti-dumping lawsuit, has proposed exempting 410 shrimp producers and exporters from investigation.
The move is in response to the first administrative review’s preliminary results, favorable to SSA, announced by the US Department of Commerce (DOC) in March 2007. Under the preliminary result, shrimp exporters from six countries would still be imposed with anti-dumping taxes when exporting products to the US.
The 410 companies which may be exempted from the second review include those which refused the first review before January 28, 2007. They are currently imposed with relatively high tax rates; for example, Brazil is being taxed 349 per cent, China, 112.81 per cent, Ecuador, 48.61 per cent, India, 82.30 per cent and Thailand, 57.64 per cent.
Indian agencies had previously announced the country had succeeded in its protest against the shrimp product anti-dumping tax, at the US Court of International Trade (CIT).
India, which has violently protested the bond-paying regime, said paying bonds must not be seen as a way to ensure tax payments, as tax payments could be guaranteed with the security.
The success has prompted India to lodge a protest against the bond-paying regime with the WTO, and the country is awaiting the final decision.
In related news on anti-dumping taxes, DOC has decided to lower tax rates on tra and basa fillet products made by Dong Thap-based QVD Food Company Ltd to 21.23 per cent, from the previously applied rates of 66.34 per cent.
These are final results of the DOC’s second administrative review. The tax rates applied on other Vietnamese tra and basa exporters remain at high levels of 66.34 per cent, while Cataco is still taxed 80.88 per cent. (Labour)
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