US Commerce Department orders antidumping rates be reset on Indian shrimp producers

The U.S. Department of Commerce announced last week that it issued a final ruling in an administrative review of frozen warmwater shrimp processors in India.

The report concludes that Indian companies dumped – or sold their shrimp below market rates – their products from 1 February, 2016 to 31 January, 2017. As a result, 230 Indian companies will see their deposit rates go up to 1.35 percent.

According to a 10 July memo written by James Maeder, Commerce’s associate deputy assistant secretary for antidumping, the order applies to: “(C)ertain frozen warmwater shrimp and prawns, whether wildcaught (ocean harvested) or farm-raised (produced by aquaculture), head-on or head-off, shell-on or peeled, tail-on or tail-off, deveined or not deveined, cooked or raw, or otherwise processed in frozen form.” 

The deposits serve as a bond companies must pay to the federal government in case officials rule a company is trying to gain an unfair advantage in the market by selling their products at less than a fair price.

On Monday 16 July, Commerce officials set the rate at 1.35 percent for Indian processors affected by the ruling. According to the Southern Shrimp Alliance, a U.S. trade association, the deposit rate will work out to an approximate USD 0.06 (EUR 0.05) per-pound levy on imports. That’s based on an average market value of USD 4.34 (EUR 3.76) per pound. 

When officials made their preliminary announcement of their findings back in March, they assessed a 2.34 percent deposit fee. However, Maeder’s memo notes Devi Fisheries Limited appealed the ruling, saying that Commerce investigators failed to convert values from price-per-kilogram to price-per-pound. Officials also agreed to the forward exchange rates that the processors used in calculating U.S. prices.

One company that will not face the deposit requirement is Liberty Group, which was determined to have a weighted-average dumping margin of zero. 

Commerce officials determined the rate by reviewing sales of Devi and Liberty Group.

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