September 20, 2007

 

Zero tax rate for Vietnamese seafood exporters

 

 

Vietnamese shrimp exporters Viet Hai Company and Grobest will enjoy the tax rate of zero percent, while six other Vietnamese companies, the defendants in the first administrative review of the shrimp case, will still bear the previous tax rates.

 

This is the result of the first administrative review announced by the US Department of Customs (DOC), confirms the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) on September 18.

 

VASEP Secretary General Truong Dinh Hoe said Grobest is a new volunteer defendant, while Viet Hai is listed among the compulsory defendants, which incurred the initial anti-dumping tax rate of 4.57 percent. Six other Vietnamese seafood companies have the average tax rate of 25.76 percent. 

 

The new tax rates would be applied for the companies' imports to the US from August 2003 to January 31, 2006. Also at the same time, the US DOC made an administrative review over warm water shrimps from China, Ecuador, Thailand and Brazil.

 

Exporters from China have been imposed the tax rates of between 0.44 to 112.81 percent, while Ecuador's defendants were slapped 0 to 3.69 percent. Thailand bears the tax rates of 2.58 to 57.64 percent, and Brazil, 4.62 to 67.8 percent.

 

At the end of 2004, about 54 Vietnamese companies listed as defendants in the shrimp lawsuit were imposed the anti-dumping tax rates of between 4.3 percent and 25.76 percent. In April 2006, DOC announced it would review the tax rates initially imposed on Vietnam's shrimps and the products from five other countries.

 

In mid June 2006, nineteen Vietnamese enterprises reached an agreement with the Southern Shrimp Alliance, under which the plaintiff withdrew the proposal for the administration review on these enterprises' products while agreeing to pay a big sum of money.

 

Thirty enterprises on the list of DOC for the administration review have been concluded by VASEP as "missing".

 

In July 2006, DOC announced the change of compulsory defendants from Amanda Foods, Phuong Nam and Fimex to Kigimex, Fish One and Seaprodex Hanoi. The three new compulsory defendants are bearing the tax rates of 4.57 percent to 25.76 percent.

 

The shrimp lawsuits are now drawing special attention from the public. India and Thailand are initiating legal proceedings against the US with the WTO, while Ecuador has won a similar case.

 

Last year, the World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled that the "zeroing" method applied by the US to calculate anti-dumping tax levels was illegal. Hoe said the post-review tax rate of 0 percent on two Vietnamese companies' products showed that Vietnam did not dump shrimp in the US.

 

Analysts say that the anti-dumping tax rates will be questioned by more countries based on the WTO's principles, which is what was seen in the lawsuit raised by Ecuador against the US.