The American Shrimp Processors Association (ASPA) has recently filed petitions with the US Department of Commerce (DOC) and the US International Trade Commission (ITC), seeking anti-dumping (AD) duties on imports of frozen warmwater shrimp from Ecuador and Indonesia, and countervailing (CVD) duties on such imports from Ecuador, India, Indonesia and Vietnam.
The petitions implicate a substantial volume of trade, with imports of frozen warmwater shrimp from the 4 countries amounting to US$6.66 billion in 2022.
In 2005, the DOC published AD orders on Frozen and Canned Warmwater Shrimp from, and which remain in place today. Accordingly, if successful, the new petitions would add CVD liability for importers of frozen warmwater shrimp from India and Vietnam that are already subject to AD duty requirements, and would impose new AD and CVD liability for importers of frozen warmwater shrimp from Ecuador and Indonesia.
Under US law, a domestic industry may petition the government to initiate an AD investigation into the pricing of an imported product to determine whether it is sold in the US at less than fair value (i.e., dumped). A domestic industry may also petition for the initiation of a CVD investigation, which examines alleged subsidization of foreign producers by a foreign government. The DOC will impose AD and/or CVD duties if it determines that imported goods are dumped and/or subsidized, and the ITC also determines that the domestic industry is materially injured or threatened with such injury by reason of subject imports.
The products subject to these investigations are certain frozen warmwater shrimp and prawns whether wild-caught (ocean harvested) or farm-raised (produced by aquaculture), head-on or head-off, shell-on or peeled, tail-on or tail-off, deveined or not deveined, cooked or raw, or otherwise processed in frozen form. Frozen shrimp and prawns that are packed with marinade, spices or sauce are also included in the scope. In addition, food preparations, which are not ‘prepared meals’, that contain more than 20% by weight of shrimp or prawn are also included.
