The existing anti-dumping duty levied on shrimp imports from India would be shortly reviewed by the United States International Trade Commission (USITC), according to a report in The Financial Express. Under the US Tariff Act of 1930, all tariffs come automatically under review every five years and the anti-dumping duty on shrimp imports from India, China, Brazil, Thailand and Vietnam imposed from 2005 would be revoked or continued on the basis of a fresh evaluation.

The US State Department has asked Indian exporters to submit their requests for the fresh review. India and the other countries have to pay a duty for exporting frozen warm water shrimps into the US after the USITC ruled in 2005 that lower priced, pond-raised shrimps from Brazil, China, Ecuador, India, Thailand and Vietnam were hurting the US industry. The US mostly harvests shrimps from the sea. US-based Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA) is the original petitioner against India and several other nations on the shrimp import issue.

In addition to the anti-dumping duty, the US had also imposed a customs bond, which is a cash guarantee collected by the US Customs against any further rise in the anti-dumping duty. Frozen shrimps exports constitute 50% of the value of India’s total seafood exports and the US actions had a deleterious effect on the numerous aquaculture farms spread over coastal India.