Vietnam’s government has not been subsidizing any of its shrimp farmers and exporters’ operations, according to Tran Thien Hai, president of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP). He was responding in a statement on US companies’ filing of an anti-subsidy lawsuit against Vietnamese shrimp.
On 28 December, US shrimp producers filed a petition asking the US Department of Commerce (DOC) to run an anti-subsidy investigation into frozen warm-water shrimp imported from Vietnam, Thailand and other prominent shrimp farming countries. The US producers also requested that the US International Trade Commission (USITC) review losses caused to the domestic shrimping sector as a result of cheaper imports, Hai told, VNA reports.
US shrimpers allege that the imports are unfairly low in price and devastate their competitive edge.
In response, Vietnam has asked the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to appoint a panel of arbitrators to rule on the dispute, Reuters reports.
The WTO has ruled against the US several times because, until early in 2012, the country relied on a wrong method of calculating dumping, which consequently moved the government to withdraw numerous accusations it had made against countries that export seafood to the US.
Now, Vietnam has complained that the DOC has not reversed duties applied against Vietnamese shrimp exporters.
Truong Dinh Hoe, general secretary of VASEP, underscored that Vietnam has evidence to combat the attack by the Coalition of Gulf Shrimp Industries (COGSI).
We should understand that disputes among companies in the same industry inside and outside the nation are unavoidable, Hoe said, Saigon Times Daily reports. If COGSI has evidence to persuade DOC to launch the anti-subsidy investigation, VASEP on behalf of local shrimp exporters will also have proof to show their accusation is not right.
VASEP has got in touch with Vietnamese companies to inform them of the case and encourage them to get the necessary documents ready in case they are approached regarding the investigation, he noted.
DOC will officially announce whether it accepts the case or not on this week.
In the first 11 months of 2012, the US was the second main importer of Vietnamese shrimp, with Japan being the first, with a turnover exceeding USD 425 million, accounting for 20.6 per cent of the country’s total shrimp exports, according to VASEP.
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