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Loophole for imported breaded
shrimp negates tariff
U.S. Breaded-shrimp manufacturer
Tampa Maid Foods Inc. blames costly tariffs
for the loss of 58 jobs from its payroll.
Tariffs imposed by the International
Trade Commission range from 2 percent to
112 percent on U.S. frozen shrimp imports
and are the result of an anti-dumping petition
filed December 31, 2003 , by the Southern
Shrimp Alliance. The Alliance represents
thousands of fishermen, processors, distributors
and marketers.
Tampa Maid relies on imported
frozen shrimp to bread at its facility for
its layer-packed, dinner-shrimp products,
which accounts for 30 percent of its business.
The cost of importing the unprocessed shrimp
is added to the U.S. labor needed to make
the product, causing profits to disappear.
Ed Smith, senior vice president
of finance at Tampa Maid explains that a
layer pack is a number of people on a line,
packing shrimp in layers in a box.
“That’s expensive
labor. Add to that the tariff on the raw
material, and it basically wipes out the
category in the United States ,” Smith
said. “What it will force the domestic
breaders to do is the same thing we have
done. We’re importing breaded shrimp.”
U.S. imports of breaded shrimp
in 2004 of more than 36 million pounds double
that of 2003. China nearly tripled its breaded
shrimp exports last year, comprising about
half of all breaded shrimp imports.
Smith disputes that the tariffs
have helped U.S. southern shrimpers sell
more shrimp.
The Wave
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