Vietnamese shrimps continue to encounter US anti-dumping duty

Vietnamese shrimps exported to the US have encountered difficulties due to anti-dumping tax.

Information from the Vietnam Competition Authority, under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, revealed that the US Department of Commerce (DOC) has announced its decision to adjust the antidumping duty on Vietnamese shrimp exported to the country, between February 1, 2013 and January 31, 2014, from 1.16% to 1.42%.

The decision was made following changes in dumping calculations, although on September 7, 2015, the DOC publicised the results of its ninth administrative review (POR9) on frozen shrimp imported from Vietnam.

The DOC has used a country with a similarly sized economy in order to set the level of anti-dumping duty on Vietnamese shrimp.

In previous years, the department had used rates from Bangladesh to determine the duty. However, this year a group of US vessel owners and processors complained, prompting the department to replace Bangladesh with India.

This decision means that the selected importers are subjected to a higher anti-dumping duty on imported shrimp during the 12-month period beginning in February 2013.

Companies that import products from Vietnam into the US have to pay cash deposits and the dumping margins will then be taken from these deposits.

According to Truong Dinh Hoe, General Secretary of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), the imposition of higher anti-dumping tax rate on Vietnamese shrimp, to protect domestic American fisheries, by the DOC is unreasonable and unfair and the VESEP continues to oppose the decision.

The higher anti-dumping duty will increase the price of Vietnamese shrimp in the US, hurting the product’s competitiveness and also greatly affecting the exports made to the US by Vietnamese enterprises.

As reported by the VASEP, Vietnam shrimp export revenue stood at US$1.56 billion in the first half of 2017, up nearly 16% over last year.

Since the beginning of 2017, the DOC has extended the anti-dumping duties on frozen shrimp imports from Vietnam for another five years.

The US was once the leading export market for Vietnamese shrimp exporters, however, according to the VASEP, Japan is now the leading importer of Vietnamese shrimp.