The United States International Trade Commission (ITC) on June 1 voted today to maintain antidumping orders on unfairly traded imported shrimp from China, India, Thailand and Vietnam. The action was taken in connection with the Third Five Year Sunset Review on the shrimp antidumping orders. All five commissioners voted unanimously that the US shrimp industry would likely continue to suffer material injury if the orders were removed.
Trey Pearson, president of the American Shrimp Processors Association (ASPA), praised the action, stating: ”Decades of increasing imported shrimp volumes have created a race to the bottom on prices and decimated our market share. The ITC provided us with a lifeline and incentive to continue the fight to allow this industry to survive in a fair competitive environment.”
The ASPA has defended the antidumping orders for 15 years and continues to believe that trade relief is critical to survival. In a joint statement ASPA trade counsel Elizabeth Drake and Eddy Hayes said: “The trade remedy system is crucial to our international trade legal framework. Antidumping duties provide important discipline on goods sold at less than fair value, and we thank the ITC Commissioners and staff for carefully considering the data and the impact of continued dumping on this important domestic industry.”
The US shrimp industry is an important part of economies along the Gulf Coast and in South Atlantic communities where domestic shrimp is harvested and processed.
