Last week, the US International Trade Commission announced a five-year anti-dumping duty investigation against shrimp exporters in four countries, including China, India, Thailand and Vietnam. A number of large Southeast Asian exporters has begun defense proceedings.
 
"The United States will review these four countries under the Tariff Act of 1930 to determine whether the removal of anti-dumping duties on frozen warm-water shrimp within a reasonably foreseeable period of time could result in impaired supply of raw materials," the ITC said. However, the exact period of review has not yet been determined.
 
The Southern Shrimp Alliance, one of the entities pushing for the anti-dumping duties, has always maintained that the influx of imported shrimp into the US market hurts the interests of local industries and squeezes their existing market space. Thai exporters and their lawyers, on the other hand, argue that many of their exporters are mistaken for US suppliers by US consumers and that Thai producers do not ship to the US market during the long anti-dumping duties.
 
The Thai side also said that in addition, several major Thai exporters have reduced their exports to the U.S. market due to anti-dumping issues, and Thai frozen shrimp exports to the U.S. have plummeted in the past decade. On the contrary, demand in Thailand's domestic market and major non-US export markets such as Japan and the European Union increased sharply; Even though Thailand has the lowest anti-dumping duties of all the countries surveyed, manufacturers won't see a sharp increase in shipments as a result of whether the U.S. rescind the duties.
 
The Thai defense includes Asian Sea Corporation, CP Foods; Good Luck Product, IT Foods, KF Food, Kingfisher Holdings, Kitchens of the Ocean (Thailand) and Kongphop Frozen Foods are among others. Indian and Vietnamese exporters have also hired lawyers to defend themselves against a new round of anti-dumping investigations, while Chinese companies have yet to do so.