Vietnam condemns US ruling in shrimp dumping case

Vietnam condemns US ruling in shrimp dumping case

Ben Rowse Agence France-Presse Hanoi

Vietnam's seafood industry condemned Wednesday a ruling by a U.S. trade panel that Vietnamese shrimp exports are threatening the American shrimp industry, calling the anti-dumping investigation "absurd".

The Vietnam Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) said it was "very disappointed" that the International Trade Commission (ITC) did not terminate the legal action against Vietnam and five other countries.

"VASEP affirms that Vietnamese shrimp producers and processors have not dumped shrimp on the U.S. market and have not caused damage or threatened to cause material losses to the U.S. shrimp industry," it said in a statement.

The six-member quasi-judicial ITC voted unanimously on Tuesday that shrimp and prawns from Brazil, China, Ecuador, India, Thailand and Vietnam were being dumped in the United States.

The ruling has given the green light to the Department of Commerce to press ahead with anti-dumping investigations and make a preliminary finding -- which could mean import tariffs or quotas -- by about June 8, the ITC said.

U.S. shrimp farmers, pooled together in the Ad Hoc Shrimp Trade Action Committee, had asked for the investigation in December, calling for anti.dumping tariffs of up to 349 percent.

They claim that foreign competitors have dumped shrimp on the American market, triggering a plunge in the value of US-harvested shrimp from US$1.25 billion in 2000 to $559 million in 2002.

VASEP, however, said the price competitiveness of Vietnamese shrimp exports was a result of its members' "natural and technical advantages together with the efforts and hardwork of Vietnamese farmers".

It called on the U.S. government to base future rulings "on the reality of the situation and avoid imposing absurd conclusions on shrimp farmers, processors and exporters in Vietnam and other defendant countries."

Legal action against Vietnam's seafood industry comes in the wake of an acrimonious trade spat between Hanoi and Washington over catfish.

After a year-long tussle, the ITC issued a final ruling in July last year that imports of Vietnamese frozen catfish fillets were hurting the U.S. catfish industry, triggering the imposition of anti-dumping tariffs.

The dispute was the first major test of the U.S.-Vietnam bilateral trade agreement, which came into force in December 2001, praising open the communist country's markets to U.S. investors and slashing tariffs on its U.S.-bound exports.

Abruptly awakened to the international trade game by the catfish saga, Hanoi was swift to retaliate, accusing Washington of protectionism.

"Ironically, while preaching trade liberalization, U.S. authorities often adopt protectionist measures, including quota and high tax impositions, rather than encourage competition," the state-run Vietnam News Agency said last month.

Aquiculture is a major source of foreign earnings for Vietnam, second after crude oil, and any imposition of tariffs is likely to hurt.

Shrimp accounts for Vietnam's largest seafood exports and the United States was its largest shrimp export market in 2002, taking $467 million worth or 48 percent of its total shrimp exports.

In contrast, catfish exports from the Southeast Asian nation to its former military foe only reached $55 million in 2002, according to Vietnamese trade figures.