September 18, 2007

US slashes shrimp duty rates after first review
 

The US Department of Commerce (DoC) has announced the final rates of shrimp anti-dumping duties, according to its first administrative review, which covers the period from 4 August 2004 to 31 January 2006.

The new rates range from nil to 226.62 percent, according to the Federal Register of USA. The DoC is in the midst of conducting the second administrative review for which the mandatory respondents have already been selected, with the final result of the review being expected by 2008. There will be five such reviews, it is learnt.

For India, the weighted average duty has been slashed to 7.22 percent from 10.54 percent. Fifteen firms will get AFA rate of 82.30 percent.

Last month, the DoC rescinded the anti-dumping duties for Ecuador, which spared their shrimp producers from paying duty for shipments after August 15, 2007. But, amounts owed before that remained unaffected by that decision.

In the case of Ecuador, the DoC had set a rate of 3.69 percent for a company called Ocean Invest and 0 percent for Promarisco because their margins fell below 2 percent. About 19 other companies were assessed during the review and the weighted national average duty will be 3.69 percent. The maximum duty applicable to two companies from Ecuador will be 35 percent.

In the preliminary findings of the review, the rates applicable to 11 companies from Brazil had increased from 7.05 per cent to anywhere between 23.11 percent and 349 percent. In the final announcement, the new rates applicable are in the range of 4.62-15.41 per cent only.