Seafood exports to the US are likely to become more competitive with the WTO ruling that the US insistence on a cash bond for exporting shrimps to the US as violation of global laws.
The bond, a cash guarantee given to the US customs border protection for an amount calculated at 100% of the duty payable on total exports during the previous one year, is over and above the anti-dumping duty imposed by the US government.
The WTO ruling came in response to a complaint by India and Thailand against the US bond.
Seafood exporters welcomed the WTO decision and claimed that this would provide relief to exporters who were reeling under the twin barriers and strengthening Indian rupee. ?US can go for an appeal, but we believe that the final judgment would be in our favour,? Abraham Tharakan, national president of Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI) told FE.
Indian exporters and the government have been waging a combined battle against the US anti-dumping duty and cash bond.
The US International Trade Commission imposed anti-dumping duties on billions of dollars of shrimp imports from Asia and Latin America saying that there was a reasonable indication that lower-priced, pond-raised shrimps from Brazil, China, Ecuador, India, Thailand, and Vietnam were hurting the US industry. The US mostly harvests shrimp from the sea.
WTO also determined that a ?zeroing? method used by the US artificially inflates import duties on shrimp, said SEAI sources.
The US actions have taken a toll on Indian shrimp exports to the US, which are down to $252 million (Rs 1,058.40 crore) in 2006 from $485 million in 2005. Even the number of exporters to the US came down from 228, at the start of the duty four years ago, to 74 as on January 31, 2007.