The U.S. Court of International Trade has issued an order to sustain a U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) remand redetermination that imposes an anti-dumping duty of 27.66 percent on the Elque Group from India.
In April 2019, the DOC – in its preliminary review on certain frozen warm-water shrimp from India for the period between 1 February, 2017, and 31 January, 2018 – decided to levy a margin of 110.9 percent on products from Elque Group because the Indian company was accused of failing to cooperate with the DOC during the review.
The 110.9 rate for Elque was maintained in DOC’s final review, which was announced in October 2019.
In November 2019, Elque filed a complaint with the U.S. court to demand a recalculation of the duty, saying the DOC’s decision to impose such a high margin “was unsupported by substantial evidence and not in accordance with law.” The Indian company also said that it has fully cooperated with the DOC and that the U.S. agency has not taken into account Elque’s small size during the review.
In a ruling in February this year, the court remanded the DOC’s final conclusion on Elque for further action, after which a revised rate of 27.66 percent was applied on Elque by the DOC.
And on 20 September, the U.S. court sustained the DOC’s remand result for the Indian exporter.
“The Elque Group’s 27.66 percent dumping margin affirmed by the Court of International Trade yesterday is the highest level of dumping calculated for any Indian shrimp exporter in the history of the antidumping duty order,” the Southern Shrimp Alliance said in a statement.
The SSA saidthe other Indian shrimp exporters covered in the DOC’s 13th administrative review were imposed the same duty of 6.13 percent, which is “higher than any dumping margin calculated for an Indian exporter since the first administrative review.”
In December 2020, the DOC announced the final results of the fourteenth administrative review, under which shrimp from India’s ZA Sea Foods Private Limited entering into the U.S. between 1 February, 2018, and 31 January, 2019, will be taxed at 3.06 percent, according to a notice from the Federal Register.
Shrimp from 181 other Indian shrimp exporters will be levied at a similar rate of 3.06 percent.
And in the preliminary results of the fifteenth administrative review, the DOC announced in June 2021 that shrimp from Indian MSA Marines will be imposed a dumping margin of 4.73 percent, while products from HN Indigos will be taxed at 11.36 percent.
Products from 153 other Indian shrimp exporters will be levied the similar rate of 7.57 percent.
Photo courtesy of the U.S. Court of International Trade
