The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has announced that it will maintain its anti-dumping tax on a certain volume of frozen pangasius products imported from Vietnam in the next five years.
Six members of the ITC all believed that removal of the tax, as required by the Uruguay Round Table Agreement, would encourage Vietnamese exporters to dump their pangasius products in the U.S. again.
The action comes under a five-year sunset review process required by the Uruguay Round Agreements Act, which requires the U.S. Department of Commerce to review an anti-dumping or countervailing duty order, or terminate a suspension agreement, after five years.
The commission generally does not hold a hearing or conduct further investigative activities in expedited reviews.
Early this year, the DOC also decided to maintain the antidumping tax on imports of pangasius products from Vietnam for five more years.
The U.S. government initiated the measure in 2003, but U.S. imports of the pangasius grew to US$77 million last year from US$55.7 million in 2007.
Domestic enterprises have raised concerns over a possible issuance of the Fram Bill by the U.S., which may put the Vietnamese pangasius fish into the definition of “catfish,” said an official from the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP).
If Vietnamese pangasius is defined as “catfish,” it will not only let the U.S. violate WTO’s conventions but also endanger the opportunity for normal employment of more than one million farmers and workers in Vietnam, the official said.
This year, Vietnam is expected to reap US$1 billion from tra and basa fish exports, down from US$1.48 billion in 2008.
The country now has 100 pangasius processing plants with a total capacity of 1.5 million tons yearly. (Young People)
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