SEAFOODNEWS.COM by Michael Ramsingh — August 14, 2014 — The Department of Commerce will post its final determinations for shrimp antidumping duties on exports from Thailand and India next week and will settle on Vietnam's duty decision in late September.
According to Warren Connelly, an attorney at the law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer and Feld in Washington D.C, the DOC will issue final duty rates on shrimp imports from Thailand on August 22. The Department will follow up with its final Indian rates on August 25.
Vietnamese shrimp exporters, however, will have to wait another month. The DOC expects to put out its final review on those shipments on either September 23 or 24 Connelly said.
In March Commerce said it would increase shrimp duty rates over prior final rates for major U.S. shrimp suppliers in Thailand, Vietnam and India, primarily as the result of the Department’s use of a new calculation methodology, which is called “Differential Pricing.”
Vietnam had the largest increase in the preliminary margin determination for the period from between 1, 2012 and January 31, 2013. Preliminary rates between 5 and 10 percent were proposed, a significant increase from Commerce’s 2013 final determination in the prior review that awarded zero percent rates across the board. Exporters Minh Phu Seafood and Stapimex saw their potential duty margins rise from zero to 4.98 percent and 9.75 percent, respectively.
In India, the methodology also increased across the board. Most notably, Devi Fisheries went from a de minimis rate of 0.23 percent to 1.97 percent. Falcon Marine Exports, meanwhile, went from a zero percent rate to 3.01 percent.
Similarly, Thai exporters saw their shrimp antidumping duties tick up from zero percent in 2013 to 1.1 percent industry-wide, including Pakfood. Marine Gold was left out of the 2014 preliminary review because it was excluded from the antidumping order as of February 1, 2012.
In its most basic description the Department’s differential pricing formula measures differences in prices among consumers, time periods and regions. It substitutes for the “Targeted Dumping” methodology that Commerce used only when an allegation of targeting was first filed by a member of the domestic industry. No allegation is now required.
However, both of Commerce’s antidumping methodologies may not pass muster at the WTO, and both the Court of International Trade and the World Trade Organization are now hearing challenges to the methods in cases other than the shrimp cases. It is much too early to know how these will be resolved.
Should Commerce uphold these higher preliminary rates in its final determination, cash deposits with the new duties would take effect on the publication date of the final results.
This story originally appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It has be reprinted with permission.