Thailand to seek repeal of US anti-dumping on shrimp exports

Some good news is expected to come in the middle of 2010 for the Thailand shrimp industry as the Commerce and Trade Ministry plans to ask the United States to revoke its anti-dumping duty on Thai shrimp exports.

 

Commerce Minister Porntiva Nakasai held talks with representatives of the Thai Frozen Foods Association about their request to the US government to stop imposing anti-dumping duty on shrimp imported from Thailand.

 

Porntiva said anti-dumping duty at 4.7 percent for Thailand is higher than that of other shrimp-exporting countries like India and Vietnam, which are taxed at around one percent, hence hindering competitiveness among Thai shrimp exporters.

 

The Thai Frozen Foods Association also called on the government to confirm that the industry is not employing child labour as what the US importers usually state in an attempt to negotiate for a lower price.

 

Porntiva is confident that the US government will eliminate the shrimp anti-dumping duty for Thailand or cut the rate to the same as that of India and Vietnam.

 

The process should take around eight months, so Thailand can expect good news on the matter by the middle of next year.

 

For the first nine months of 2009, Thailand's shrimp export totalled around 80 billion baht (US$2.41 billion), an increase of 12.8 percent from the same period last year.

 

Earlier, Thailand filed a petition with the World Trade Organization against the US' implementation of a 100-percent bank guarantee, or continuous bond charge for Thai shrimp.

 

The WTO ruled to have the US terminate the collection of export guarantee bonds last year and return the collateral worth US$150 million, or 5.4 billion baht, to Thailand.

 

However, Thailand has not reclaimed the amount from the US so far. This is seen as one of the major causes of liquidity shortage among Thai shrimp exporters.

 

US$1 = THB33.16 (Nov 19)