June 13, 2007

Hopes running high that US would drop duties on Indian shrimp

Hopes are high among India's seafood exporting industry that the US may soon be forced to lift its anti-dumping duties on Indian shrimp.

Hopes were lifted after the WTO gave a preliminary ruling that US duties on Ecuador were illegal, thus prompting the Department of Commerce to lift duties on shrimps from the country.

A final ruling is expected by August 20, 2007.

The final hearing of the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) anti-dumping panel, for Indian shrimp exporters has been scheduled for July 24.

The Indian marine export industry, especially the shrimp sector, has high hopes after the three day-long preliminary hearing held in Geneva from June 6-8.

The Indian delegation had argued strongly against the duty and the customs bond requirement and pointed out that the US Department of Commerce (DoC) had violated the WTO principles in calculating the anti-dumping duty.

Meanwhile, the US delegation had based their arguments on the fact that 17 Indian exporters had failed to file the questionnaires demanded by the Department of Commerce and thus had to be subjected to a punitive duty of 82.3 percent.

However, Indian exporters countered that most of these 17 had already dropped the US from the list of countries they are exporting to.