July 21, 2006

WTO to investigate US duties on Ecuadorian shrimp

The WTO convened a panel Thursday (Jul 20) to investigate whether US anti-dumping duties on shrimp imports from Ecuador are legal.

The US imposed duties of up to 4.48 percent on Ecuadorian shrimp in February last year, as it said Ecuadorian exporters were selling shrimp on the US market at below-cost price.

However, Ecuador argues that the United States had incorrectly calculated the duties because it had used "zeroing" to determine whether the shrimp were being dumped.

Previous WTO panels have found that zeroing causes inflated margins of dumping, and thus higher duties.