SEAFOODNEWS.COM by John Sackton — July 17, 2014 — Louisiana Sen Mary Landrieu held a hearing on strengthening trade enforcement yesterday, at which representatives from several different industries testified on customs and border protection failure to collect duties owed.
The American Shrimp Processors' Eddie Hayes testified at the hearing. A few weeks ago, Landrieu announced that she directed $3 million to be spent to collect unpaid duties from countries that have been subject to shrimp and crawfish anti-dumping duties.
Hayes said that Louisiana producers had been hard hit by duty collection shortfalls. Unpaid duties on seafood alone account for about 40 percent, or 689 million dollars, of the more than 1.7 billion dollars in unpaid AD and CVD duties since 2001. Mushrooms, honey and garlic are other products where duties have not been collected.
At the hearing industry representatives claimed that foreign companies provide bonds against future anti-dumping duties, but in many cases the government has been unable to collect on the bond when the company involved defaulted on duty payments. In the case of honey, there was an organized scheme to post bonds that could not be collected on.
Crawfish and shrimp account for most of $689 million in uncollected seafood duties. Hayes said duty non-payment on shrimp alone has deprived the U.S. Government of 77 million dollars since 2001.
“We commend Chairman Landrieu for this hearing that highlights trade duty collection difficulties for shrimp and other U.S. industries and shows her keen interest in leveling the playing field for Gulf shrimp processors, shrimpers, and docks,” said David Veal, Executive Director of ASPA. “We look forward to working with her and Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Thad Cochran to correct the egregious transshipment and duty evasion practices of our foreign competitors,” he continued.
Hayes noted in his testimony that, “If the IRS only collected two out of every three tax dollars owed, it would be on the front page of every newspaper, and rightly so. This duty collection problem deserves a similar level of urgent attention.”
The ASPA and the crawfish industry are urging a ban on allowing new shippers to post customs bonds, and instead requiring them to post cash payments instead. “We also thank Chairman Landrieu for directing Customs to report on cash deposit requirements for new shipper reviews. Currently, a new exporter or producer enjoys the privilege to post bonds rather than cash deposits pending a new shipper review. This should be abolished,” he added.
This story originally appeared on Seafood.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.