Shrimp exporters seek Govt help as US set to review anti-dumping, countervailing duties

New Delhi: Indian shrimp exporters are keeping their fingers crossed as the US is set to begin its review of anti-dumping and countervailing duties on shrimp next month, and are seeking government intervention to help secure relief amid stiff global competition, industry experts say.

The exporters said that the formula of the US to calculate these duties is incorrect, and the Indian government should take up the issues with them bilaterally, as domestic traders are facing tough competition from Ecuador and Vietnam in the American market.

"The US authorities consider India's RoDTEP and duty drawback schemes as incentive schemes, which is not the case. Both are WTO-compliant duty refund schemes only," Kolkata-based seafood exporter and MD of Megaa Moda Yogesh Gupta said.

He added that the US uses a 'zeroing' method to impose anti-dumping duty on shrimp, which is not correct and needs to be re-looked as it distorts the calculation of the margin of dumping.

He said that exporters are concerned and the government should come forward to support them by re-introducing the Transport and Marketing Assistance (TMA) scheme.

Through this, the United States is not making a fair comparison between the export price and the normal value, leading to distorted dumping margins.

Besides these duties, Indian shrimp exporters face a 10 per cent baseline tariff imposed by the US on April 2. Giving a big relief, America has suspended the additional 26 per cent duty on India.

Currently, Indian shrimp exports to the US face an effective customs duty of 17.7 per cent, including 5.77 per cent in countervailing duties and 1.8 per cent in anti-dumping duties.

Seafood Exporters Association of India Secretary General K N Raghavan has recently urged the government to focus on securing a "level-playing field" for the country's seafood exports during upcoming trade talks before the tariff pause expires.

Another exporter said Ecuador is India's biggest competitor in the sector, as it faces lower duties and enjoys a major advantage in shipping due to its proximity to the US market.

Odisha-based exporter Rajen Padhi said the anti-dumping duty has been in place for two decades, and it's time the US sets a uniform rate for India.

"As per an international agreement, no taxes should be exported. So now we can convince the US that the RoDTEP (Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products) scheme is not an incentive scheme as we have a mechanism in place to do the verification," said Padhi, Commercial Director, B One Business House Pvt Ltd.

The US is the largest market for the domestic shrimp industry. Out of India's total shrimp exports, the country ships 40 per cent to America.

Ecuador and Indonesia are major competitors of the domestic exporters in the US market.

There are around 1 lakh shrimp farms in India, most of which are in Andhra Pradesh.

The export of frozen shrimps during 2023-24 was 7,16,004 tonnes. The US imported 2,97,571 tonnes last fiscal year, followed by China (1,48,483 tonnes), the European Union (89,697 tonnes), and Japan (35,906 tonnes).