US not to levy punitive duties on Chinese shrimps

WASHINGTON - Frozen warmwater shrimps from China, Ecuador, India, Malaysia and Vietnam does not hurt or threaten the US industry, said the US trade authority in a final ruling Friday.

The US International Trade Commission (ITC) therefore determined to deny a ruling by the Commerce Department on final countervailing duties (CVD) on shrimp imports worth of some $1.9 billion from the five countries. As a result of the commission's negative determinations, no countervailing duty order will be issued on imports of this product.

The ITC said in a statement that "a US industry is neither materially injured nor threatened with material injury by reason of imports of frozen warmwater shrimp from China, Ecuador, India, Malaysia, and Vietnam that the US Department of Commerce has determined are subsidized."

Four of the six-member commission voted in the negative, while two others voted in the affirmative.

The US Coalition of Gulf Shrimp Industries late last year filed a petition to the US trade regulator to seek protection. The Commerce Department then instituted the investigations in January and set final countervailing duties (CVD) on Aug 12, 2013.

Under the Commerce Department's ruling, Chinese exporters that have sold frozen warmwater shrimps in the US market would have to face 5.76 percent in countervailing duties.

The ITC revealed that the US industry comprised 48 producers and 2,050 workers. The US shrimp consumption market amounted at 1.3 billion pounds (about 591 million kilograms), with the imports taking up 35.7 percent. Thailand, Indonesia and India were the three largest import sources, and China took the seventh place.