The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) plans to continue to impose a 3.76 percent tariff on 185 Indian shrimp exporters, following the preliminary results of its 17th administrative review of the antidumping duty order on frozen warmwater shrimp from India.
The review investigated frozen shrimp sales into the U.S. by 187 exporters from India between 1 February, 2021 and 31 January, 2022.
In its preliminary conclusion, the DOC said some frozen shrimp from India was sold into the U.S. market at less-than-normal value. The two mandatory respondents, Megaa Moda Pvt. Ltd. (Megaa Moda) and NK Marine Exports LLP (NK Marine), were preliminarily levied 7.92 percent and 1.43 percent duties, respectively. The dumping margin for the remaining 185 Indian companies was 3.76 percent, based on the rates imposed on the two mandatory respondents.
These margins are higher than the rates levied in the final results of the 16th administrative review, which covered the period between 1 February, 2020 and 31 January, 2021. In that review, the margin for LNSK Green House Agro Products LLP was kept unchanged at zero percent, while Royal Imports and Exports and other 161 Indian shrimp exporters were imposed a 3.01 percent rate.
The 15th administrative review, covering 1 February, 2019 to 31 January, 2020, set the levy rate for 152 indian shrimp exporters at 7.15 percent.
If the dumping rate of 3.76 percent is kept in the final result of the 17th administrative review, it will be the fourth-highest duty the DOC has ever imposed on Indian shrimp exporters’ sales into the U.S. since the start of the reviews in 2007, according to the Southern Shrimp Alliance.
India has been the top shrimp exporter by volume to the U.S. since 2013. It shipped 303,574 metric tons (MT), or 669 million pounds, of shrimp to the U.S. in 2022, down from 2021, when it exported 340,892 MT, or 752 million pounds, to the U.S.
However, a higher antidumping duty could place increased pressure on Indian exporters, who have already been facing lower demand and growing competition in the U.S. and Europe.
A seafood exporter from the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh told The Times of India that exports to the U.S. have slowed down compared to the last fiscal year, resulting in sluggish sales in recent months.
In September 2022, the U.S. said it was in process of reviewing antidumping duty orders on shrimp from India, China, Thailand, and Vietnam to determine whether it should continue to impose antidumping duties. It is the third five-year review – or sunset review, as it is called by DOC – that has been conducted since the imposition of the U.S.'s antidumping regime in 2005.
The initiation of the ongoing sunset review was announced by the DOC on 2 May, 2022, after which the trade groups Ad Hoc Shrimp Trade Action Committee (AHSTAC) and the American Shrimp Processors Association (ASPA) submitted the necessary documents to participate in the review.
In 2005, AHSTAC was the organization that filed formal petitions requesting antidumping duties be imposed on foreign shrimp suppliers in order to protect the U.S. domestic industry from what it claimed were unfair trade practices. The organization has continued to play a significant role in pursuing the imposition of antidumping duties on foreign shrimp exporters. During its full reviews, the commission gathers information from U.S. shrimp fishermen, farmers, and processors to consider whether the U.S. domestic shrimp industry would be materially affected if the antidumping duties were abolished.
The sunset review differs from the administrative review that the DOC undertakes on an annual basis, in that it determines whether exporters from India, China, Thailand, and Vietnam have sold their shrimp into the U.S. at under fair value for the period reviewed.
According to a DOC notice published on the Federal Register in September 2022, for the third sunset review, the DOC determined “that revocation of the orders would likely lead to a continuation or recurrence of dumping and that the magnitude of the dumping margins likely to prevail would be weighted-average margins up to 112.81 percent for China, up to 110.90 percent for India, up to 5.34 percent for Thailand, and up to 25.76 percent for Vietnam.”
A final decision on the rates will be made after another U.S. government agency, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), conducts the final phase of its review.
The ITC has announced it intends to complete the sunset review by 17 July, 2023, the Southern Shrimp Alliance said in November 2022.
Photo courtesy of nirapai boonpheng/Shutterstock
