WTO: U.S. antidumping duties on Vietnam shrimp illegal

The World Trade Organization earlier this week ruled that aspects of the United States’ antidumping duties on frozen shrimp from Vietnam were in violation of world trade laws.

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s (USDOC) “zeroing” methodology and its antidumping duties applied against exporters of Vietnam shrimp are inconsistent with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) of 1994.

Vietnam in 2012 requested consultations with USDOC officials concerning several trade laws and administrative practices. In 2013, the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body established a panel that, according to its 17 November 2014 ruling, recommended that the United States bring its trade-regulation measures “into conformity with its obligations” under GATT.
China, Ecuador, the European Union, Japan, Norway and Thailand are named as third parties in the report, which you can view in its entirety here.

The World Trade Organization has ruled that zeroing is illegal after numerous countries, including Thailand, India and China, challenged the controversial practice. Zeroing involved comparing a foreign domestic price against the U.S. import price, adjusted for shipping and handling costs. Under zeroing, the importer sets at zero the negative differences, which critics contend is not a fair comparison as it results in an antidumping duty in excess of the actual dumping practiced by the countries concerned.

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