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"Don't
count your chickens before they are
hatched"...will politics affect
the antidumping final outcome?
Shrimpers who sought to get import duties
imposed on cheap, pond-raised shrimp from
6 Asian and South American nations are hopeful
that they will get support from federal officials
Tuesday.
The US Commerce Department is expected to
issue a preliminary ruling on whether shrimp
from China and Vietnam have been dumped at
unfair prices on the US market.
“We feel very confident,” said
Eddie Gordon, the president of the Southern
Shrimp Alliance, the eight-state group that
organized the antidumping petition drive. “We
should have a fairly sizable amount of tariffs.”
The shrimp fleet and processors have been
in the midst of a crisis since 2001 when
prices plummeted. They are competing with
a flood of cheap shrimp. Imports now make
up 87 percent of the market.
The petitioners say that dumping margins
between113 percent and 263 percent apply
to China and that margins between 26 percent
and 93 percent should be slapped on Vietnam.
“We did a year’s research to
make sure we were right. I think that it
was time and money well spent,” Gordon
said about using shrimper’s money from
across the South to pay for the antidumping
petition which was filed Dec. 31.
Chuck Adams, a marine economics specialist
with the Florida Sea Grant, said a favorable
ruling at the ITC is no indication of what
will happen at the Commerce Department.
“You shouldn’t count your chickens
before they hatch,” Adams said. “There
will probably be a lot of political things
that will impinge on it, to think that politics
won’t influence it is naïve.”
Later this month, the
Commerce Department will rule on the other
four nations included
in the trade action – Brazil, Ecuador,
Thailand, and India.
After making a preliminary ruling, the Commerce
Department would make a decision on tariffs
final in the ensuing months. China has already
asked for an extension of a final ruling,
which could push it to 2005.
In all, duties would
affect about 2.3 billion in shrimp trade
and it could jolt the market
in America’s favorite seafood.
Gordon said that if the
Commerce Department on Tuesday determines
that dumping has occurred,
then it would be “hard to reverse themselves
in a final decision”.
The antidumping petition
has been strongly opposed by two groups – the
American Seafood Distributors Association
and the
Consuming Industries Trade Coalition. The
groups represent seafood distributors, restaurants,
supermarkets and some processors.
They say duties could drive shrimp prices
up by as much as 44 percent and cut consumption
by a third. Shrimp has become the most popular
seafood in the United States, overtaking
tuna in 2002.
Adams, the Florida Sea
Grant marine economist, said that if tariffs
are imposed they would
be a success “if it results in an increase
in price at the boat level.”
But he said tariffs could reduce the volume
of shrimp coming into the country and that
could drive the price up for consumers.
The Southern Shrimp Alliance said government
statistics show shrimp from the six countries
targeted in the petition fell from an average
of $3.54 per pound ($7.87 per kilogram) in
2000 to $2.55 per pound ($5.67 per kilogram)
in 2002. The group said domestic shrimp on
average fell from $6.45 ($14.33 per kilogram)
to $4.77 per pound ($10.60 per kilogram)
over the same period.
2004 Associated Press
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