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SSA wants shrimp importers
to pay full, fair value
The Southern Shrimp Alliance Wednesday
told U.S. importers that to avoid costly shrimp
tariffs and to help tsunami-hit communities in
Asia recover - they should voluntarily pay "full,
fair value" for product.
"U.S. shrimp importers and distributors
have profited at the expense of shrimp farmers
in developing countries, the U.S. shrimp industry,
and U.S. consumers for four years," SSA president
Eddie Gordon said in a press statement. "As individuals
and as a nation, we should do all we can to aid
those who have lost so much in this unprecedented
calamity. Now is the time for shrimp middlement
to stop profiting from dumped shrimp imports
and instead pay shrimp producers the full value
of their product."
But the opposition believes the
best helping hand for countries like India and
Thailand, whose farmed shrimp industries were
ravaged by the Dec. 26 tsunami, would be a complete
revocation of duties.
The International Trade Commission
(ITC) voted unanimously earlier this month to
impose tariffs on U.S. warm-water shrimp imports.
Commission members also agreed to consider reopening
the public record to comments taking into consideration
the impact of the tsunami on the shrimp farming
infrastructure in Thailand and India.
The SSA, which originally petitioned
the federal government for dumping margins, is
an alliance of shrimp fishermen, processors and
distributors from eight states: North Carolina,
South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi,
Louisiana and Texas.
In a press statement Wednesday,
Gordon "challenged" U.S. shrimp importers to
pay higher prices for shrimp from countries like
Thailand and India to help communities there
recover quicker from the disaster. By paying
higher prices, Gordon said, importers can avoid
tariffs the next time the feweral government
audits shrimp prices, which it does periodically,
to see if the tariffs should be modified.
"If shrimp importers were to pay
pre-2000 prices for shrimp, the shrimp farming
countries affected by the tsunami would get 39
percent more money to help restore their communities
and antidumping duties would not be collected
at the end of the administrative review process,"
he said.
But Warren Connelly, an attorney
representing the shrimp importing community,
told the Wave earlier that based on reports of
the severity of the tsunami's impact on shrimp
farming communities in Thailand and India, paying
tariffs could soon become a moot point.
"It's really too early to predict
the likelihood of revocation of the Indian and
Thailand orders, but the published reports by
the FAO in particular, indicate extensive damage,
so a persuasive case for revocation can certainly
be made," he said.
Both Connelly and SSA spokesperson
Deborah Long said no one knows exactly when the
ITC will decide to vote on whether it should
open the public record.
"This is an unprecedented situation,"
Long said.
The ITC will collect information
and invites submissions on whether the tsunami's
impact on the affected countries' industries
warrants the commission self-initiating a "changed
circumstances" review.
The changed circumstances provision
allows the ITC to "address situations in which
changed circumstances warrant review of an injury
determination that has culminated in the issuance
of an antidumping order."
"We're trying now to find out what
the ITC plans to do," Connelly said. "ITC cannot
begin the process of self-initiation until the
antidumping order is published, which won't be
likely until some time during the last week of
January. The actual date is unknown at this time."
Connelly said if the tsunami's
impact is considered and results on lowering
tariffs, he expects SSA to "strongly resist it",
adding that the entire process could "take a
while to resolve - months, not weeks."
The Wave
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