March 2, 2006

Shrimp exporters in Vietnam unite to petition US government

All 54 Vietnamese shrimp exporters sending shipments to the US have submitted requests to the US Department of Commerce (DOC) to reconsider anti-dumping tariffs, according to Deputy General Secretary of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Processors (VASEP) Truong Dinh Hoe.

Tariffs on Vietnamese companies can range from 4.3 percent to 25.7 percent.

The DOC would issue the list of companies for annual tariff adjustment on Mar 8 and  begin reconsideration procedures at the end of March.

The reconsideration process will cost each company at least US$75,000 and the selected company will be given 90 days to make the decision whether or not to continue the process.

Three companies will be chosen and their export prices will be compared with the prices when they first exported shrimp to the US. The DOC will then fix new tariff rates for these three companies and impose the average tariff rates for the rest.

Despite high anti-dumping tariffs, foreign exporters still dominate the top ten suppliers of shrimp to the US market last year.

Shrimp accounted for more than half of Vietnam's US$2.65 billion seafood export revenues in 2005.

Vietnam is among six countries with anti-dumping tariffs on shrimps. The other five are China, Thailand, India, Brazil and Ecuador.