After the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) compared shrimp prices from January 2020 to June 2023 and determined that there is reasonable evidence that the US industry is suffering material injury due to the alleged practices disposal and subsidies by shrimp exporters from Ecuador, Indonesia, Vietnam and India, the National Chamber of Aquaculture (CNA) rejected these allegations and recalled that the national shrimp industry had already achieved positive results in other similar processes with the same country.

The commission’s report was published by January 16. The 200+ page document states that in 131 out of 159 price comparisons (£100.2m), underpricing margins ranged from 0.7% to 46.8%. In the remaining 28 cases (£13.2 million), product prices from the countries surveyed were between 0.2% and 44.1% above domestic product prices.

These results indicate that the prices of shrimp in the mentioned countries during the observed period were lower than the prices of the product produced in the United States, that is, at a price lower than fair value and also subsidized by their governments.

American shrimp farmers and Ecuadorian companies have made their case for subsidy and dumping complaints that the Commerce Department must address. This is a preliminary investigation

José Antonio Camposano, president of CNA, assures that the partial information contained in the petitions submitted by United States shrimp producers is incorrect and incomplete. He assures that the US Department of Commerce, the body that must decide on the investigation, knows this, and believes that it will not be based on this, but on the detailed answers to the questionnaires submitted by the investigated companies.

“It’s relatively easy for the US shrimp industry to make that claim, based on limited information disposal and that the subsidies were given, but it is quite another thing to actually find out during the official investigative process that it was disposal or the subsidies really happened,” Camposano warned.

The leader reminded that the Ecuadorian shrimp sector has already been investigated on two occasions:disposal of 2004 and other countervailing duties (subsidies) of 2013. “The US shrimp industry is once again insisting on seeking a different result on this occasion, since US law does not prohibit it,” the presenter complained. He confirmed that the Ecuadorian shrimp sector, through CNA, is working in defense.

Returning to current research, he clarified that both, anti-disposal and compensatory fees, are in their preliminary phase. He explained that after the issuance of preliminary decisions, additional procedures will be carried out that will lead to final decisions by the Ministry of Trade and the Commission for International Trade.

Additional duties on US shrimp if dumping is proven

The decision on subsidies for the four surveyed countries will be announced at the end of next March. The original preliminary determination date was postponed at the request of US industry. In the meantime, between October and November of this year, decisions on the investigation of disposalCamposano said.

For this reason, it is too early for the manager to speculate on the possible impact on the nation’s shrimp industry should an unfavorable outcome occur. However, he announced that, as a sanction, additional import duties (duties) would be imposed on US importers in amounts necessary to offset the amount disposal ie subsidies.

The drop in prices hit the shrimp sector, which had a -5% turnover until August, although it produces and exports more

Camposano revealed that only two Ecuadorian companies are being investigated individually, but the average of their results will be applied to all other Ecuadorian exporters.

But in order to reach either decision, a CNA spokesman indicated that both the United States International Trade Commission and the United States Department of Commerce are conducting extensive investigations into the allegations made by their domestic industry. “The entire investigative process takes about a year,” he estimated.