The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers said Thursday, 8 March that the United States made a “mistake” in the preliminary results of its 12th administrative review of its antidumping order on frozen warm-water shrimp from Vietnam (POR12).

The “mistake” has resulted in a much higher-than-expected duty rate for Vietnamese shrimp products, VASEP said in a statement.

The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) announced 8 March that the calculated rate for the review from 1 February, 2016, to 31 January, 2017, for Sao Ta Seafoods Joint Stock Company (FIMEX VN) is 25.39 percent. That rate will now be imposed on other shrimp exporters from Vietnam, as FIMEX wa the only mandatory respondent in the proceeding, according to VASEP.

“Careful analysis of the DOC dumping margin program shows that they have incorrectly applied a conversion factor from headless to head-on shrimp. If the conversion had been applied correctly, the duty would have been just 1.19 percent,” VASEP said.

“We are shocked by this result,” FIMEX VN Chairman and General Manager Ho Quoc Luc said, adding that his company had expected a rate of less than two percent in POR12.

No Vietnamese frozen shrimp exporter has ever received a dumping duty higher than a single-digit percentage rate as a result of a U.S. administrative review process, VASEP said.

FIMEX VN had been scheduled to have a verification with DOC officials in January, but it was postponed due to the U.S. government shutdown. The verification has been rescheduled to July this year. 

Luc said his company is ready to show DOC why the rate should have been much lower. VASEP and FIMEX VN are confident the 25.39 percent rates will be reduced in the final results, expected to be announced in September. They asked the DOC to quickly review its preliminary results.

The preliminary rate has no effect. It was announced in order to allow the relevant parties to argue why it is correct or not, according to VASEP.

While Vietnam’s export value of shrimp products to most destinations rose last year, the shipment value to the US fell seven percent year-on-year to USD 659 million (EUR 530 million) due to U.S. antidumping duties placed on shrimp from Vietnam, VASEP said.