February 1, 2012

US lifts penalty duties on Norwegian salmon

US penalty tariffs, which were used to obstruct Norway's salmon imports since 1991, have been lifted, according to an announcement from the US International Trade Commission (USITC).

The tariff had applied only to fresh salmon rather than the filleted or smoked variety.

Lisbeth Berg-Hansen, Norwegian Fisheries Minister and a salmon farmer herself, welcomes the Commission's move, Reuters reports.

"This case has fundamentally relevant business and trade policy aspects that have been important for us to clear up", Berg-Hansen stated. "The salmon industry is highly export-oriented and dependent on good, predictable trade conditions."

Last year, Norwegian salmon farmers exported a record 979,000 tonnes of the fish worth US$5.02 billion. Less than 20,000 tonnes was bought by the US, in the form of fillets, according to analysts.

"This gives us an extra opportunity", Alf-Helge Aarskog, Chief Executive of Marine Harvest, the world's largest salmon farming company. "Norwegian salmon is attractive in the US, and it always has been."

The USITC's only comment regarding its decision was that it hoped such "material injury" affecting US interests which had prompted the original penalty, will not occur again "within a reasonably foreseeable time."

"Criminal actions were challenged primarily because we wanted to get rid of an unfair trade barrier for Norwegian salmon in the US", commented Sveinung Sandvik of the Fishery and Aquaculture Industry Association, DN reports. "For the Norwegian seafood industry, which is highly export-oriented, it has great significance that we have conditions which ensure access to markets."

The Uruguay Round Agreements Act requires the US Department of Commerce (DOC) to revoke an antidumping or countervailing duty order after five years unless the DOC and the USITC determine that revoking the order or terminating the suspension agreement would be likely to lead to a recurrence of dumping or subsidies and of material injury within a reasonably foreseeable time.

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreement requires that the US government undertake a review every five years of whether the punitive duty will be continued. Such a review was initiated in January 2011.