December 2, 2005

Ecuador challenges US anti-dumping duties on shrimp exports

Ecuador has challenged US anti-dumping duties on its shrimp exports by bringing the dispute before the World Trade Organization. The country alleged that the US Department of Commerce's "zeroing" method in calculating the duties contravened WTO rules.

Under the WTO Anti-dumping Agreement, a WTO member could impose anti-dumping duties on an imported product if it discovered that the exporting company charged less for it abroad than in the home market.

However, the US's "zeroing" method reportedly did not consider instances where US sales prices were higher than the home market level. Thus, such cases were "zeroed" out of the assessment.

Ecuador has argued that this process led to artificial and inflated anti-dumping margins.

The WTO has also consistently ruled against the US's method in such previous disputes with countries such as Canada, the EU, Japan, Mexico and Thailand.

In a recent case, the US had initially offered to help Thailand's shrimp industry after last December's tsunami. But the US International Trade Commission later decided to maintain the anti-dumping duties on Thai shrimp.