October 31, 2006

US "disappointed" with Thailand's WTO lawsuit

The US has expressed disappointment that Thailand had chosen to bring its case to the WTO after it successfully prompted the WTO to open investigations against US antidumping duties on its shrimp imports.

The US blocked Thailand's  first request for the WTO to set up an investigative panel in September. A panel is established automatically with the second request which was to be filed a month later. 

The US said member nations have the right to ensure that importers pay duties owed. US negotiator David Shark said the US was confident the WTO panel would "recognise this fact and reject Thailand's claims."

Thailand argues the import duties threaten the livelihood and sustainability of its shrimp industry, which employs about 1 million people, many of whom are still recovering from the December 2004 tsunami.

It has argued that the US improperly calculates antidumping fees through a procedure known as "zeroing" and complained of the procedures being too cumbersome.

The argument against zeroing is it counts product shrimp exporters sold at below-market value in the United States without balancing it against product sold at above-market prices.

The practice was ruled illegal by the WTO in an unrelated cased involving exports of softwood lumber from Canada to the United States.

Although previous WTO panels have found that zeroing leads to higher duties, in a zeroing dispute initiated by Japan against the US last month, it was found that most examples of alleged wrongdoing did not violate international trade rules.

The US also has antidumping duties on shrimp imports from Brazil, China, Ecuador, India and Vietnam, of which Ecuador and India has already started the process of filing complaints with WTO.