All 54 Vietnamese companies that exported shrimp to the US from July of 2004 to January of 2005 have submitted applications to the US Department of Commerce (DOC) to reconsider anti-dumping tariffs on their shipments, said the Deputy General Secretary of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Processors (VASEP).
The deputy also said that the DOC will issue the list of companies for annual tariff adjustment on March 8.
Vietnam is among six countries targeted with anti-dumping tariffs. The other five are China, Thailand, India, Brazil and Ecuador.
Thirty days after the February 28 deadline, DOC will begin reconsideration procedures on anti-dumping tariffs, Hoe said, adding the process would take at least 387 days.
The reconsideration process will cost a company at least USUS$75,000 and the selected company will be given 90 days to make the final decision to continue with the process or not.
The DOC will choose three companies at random and consider their export prices for one year as compared with the prices when they first exporting shrimp to the US. Then, the DOC will fix new tariff rates for these three companies and impose the average tariff rates for the rest.
Under DOC’s final decision, tariffs levied on Vietnamese companies ranged from 4.3 per cent to 25.7 per cent. Among them, Minh Hai JS Seafood Processing Company is taxed 4.13 per cent, the Minh Phu Seafood Company, 4.21 per cent, the Ca Mau Frozen Seafood Processing Import-Export Company, 4.99 per cent and Kim Anh Co. Ltd., 25.76 per cent.
Some Vietnamese companies received a separate rate of 4.38 per cent and the nationwide rate set for other Vietnamese companies is 25.76 per cent
High anti-dumping tariffs, however, did not stop most of the six countries from ranking among the top ten suppliers of shrimp to the US market last year.
Shrimp is the largest export earner for Vietnam's seafood industry, accounting for more than half of Vietnam’s total seafood export revenues, which totaled at USUS$2.6 billion last year. In 2004, about 300,000 tons of shrimp was sold abroad to 80 countries and territories.
Among Vietnamese shrimp importers, the US has been the biggest buyer of Vietnamese shrimp since 2002. According to statistics from the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Vietnam ranks fourth after Thailand, China and India in export of shrimp to this market.
Youth, VNS
Vietnamese
