Vietnam tackles US at WTO over shrimp imports

 

 

Vietnam has launched its first dispute at the World Trade Organization (WTO) with a case against US anti-dumping measures on its key exports of shrimp.

 

The communist state only joined the global trade arbiter three years ago, and its economy like China's has benefited strongly from membership in the world trading system and its rules.

 

Vietnamese shrimp exporters currently face anti-dumping duties from the US ranging from 0% to about 26%.

 

Exporters have complained in the past about the controversial US method of calculating anti-dumping duties known as zeroing, which has been condemned repeatedly by WTO courts and rejected by all other WTO members, according to reports.

 

According to documents filed by Vietnam with the WTO, Vietnam is seeking consultations with the US - the first formal stage in a dispute.

 

Meanwhile, according to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), Vietnam exported 190,000 tonnes of shrimp in 2009, up 7% percent in volume and 1% in value. Besides the US, other main markets include Japan, South Korea, China and the EU.

 

The Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA), which represents shrimp fishermen and processors in eight US states, won anti-dumping duties on imports from Brazil, China, Ecuador, India, Thailand and Vietnam in 2004 after a US Commerce Department (DoC) investigation found those countries guilty of unfair pricing practices.

 

That action helped stabilise an industry hit hard by plummeting prices, but annual US administrative reviews have weakened the duties over the years and US shrimpers are now struggling with historically low prices, SSA executive director John Williams said.

 

US duties on shrimp from Thailand had such little effect that the SSA recently negotiated a deal for the Thai shrimp industry to pay US shrimpers at least US$100 million to have the duties dropped, Williams said.

 

However, that agreement is opposed by a rival US group, the American Shrimp Processors Association, which is urging the DoC to block it, he said.