The shrimp association of Louisiana State and private American companies have asked DOC to reconsider the tax rates imposed on shrimp suppliers from Viet Nam, China, India, Thailand, Ecuador and Brazil.

DOC will check the imports from countries including Viet Nam for the period between February 1, 2007 and January 31, 2008.

Listed companies will have 30 days to prove to DOC that they did not export shrimp at dumping prices in the above period.

Prior to that, DOC had released a preliminary conclusion on an administrative review of the anti-dumping tax on Viet Nam’s warm-water frozen shrimp for the period between February 1, 2006 and January 31, 2007. The tax rate on 28 Vietnamese companies was slashed to zero per cent in the second administrative review.

DOC imposed anti-dumping tax rates on shrimp imported from six countries in 2005. The average tax rate on Vietnamese shrimp was 25.76 per cent.

Slowdown in exports

In the first quarter of this year, Viet Nam earned US$228.5 million from exporting 27,500 tonnes of shrimp, a 14 per cent year-on-year increase in terms of volume, but a 5.8 per cent year-on-year decrease in value.

The ministry attributed the price decrease to the changes in American and Japanese tastes. Customers in the two major markets currently prefer small- and medium-sized shrimp, instead of the larger shrimp they previously enjoyed. Viet Nam mainly exports larger shrimp.

The country expected to earn $1.68 billion from shrimp exports this year, accounting for roughly 40 per cent of the country’s total seafood export earnings. — VNS

(11-04-2008)

Source: vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn