Kochi, Jan. 22 With just 10 more days left for submitting detailed replies to the US International Trade Commission and the US Department of Commerce for revoking the anti-dumping duties on Indian shrimp exports to the US, exporters here have said that they are ready.
The Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI) said that the seafood exporters would be submitting their replies to their legal representative by January 25 to be submitted to the US authorities before the February 3 deadline.
Most of the details have been collected from the exporters, collated and it is just a matter of submitting them to the legal representative. The Indian shrimp exporters are reposing faith in the process since exports to the US have shrunk both in volume and value ever since the anti-dumping duties were imposed five years ago. The US has been one of the leading seafood export destinations.
Volumes and earnings
The US today accounts for just seven per cent of the Indian seafood exports by volume and 13 per cent by foreign exchange earnings. Even this position is being further undermined as the value of exports to the US fell sharply to seven per cent according to the figures available for the first six months of the current fiscal.
While the US Department of Commerce will examine the export practice of individual exporters, the SEAI will respond to ITC queries which will be on the practices of the industry and the country as a whole. Individual responses will have to come from exporters who constitute at least 50 per cent of the total shrimp exports to the US during the last five years. After examining the responses from the export community, it seems possible that the US Department of Commerce will choose some principal respondents for conducting further and more detailed enquiry.
While reposing confidence that the anti-dumping duty would be waived with the sunset review, the exporters said that around $50 million was still pending as customs bonds with the US Customs Department which is still to be liquidated in favour of Indian exporters. Indian exporters had to execute close to $20 million as customs bonds in 2005-06 which would had fallen to around $11.55 million in 2006-07.
The amounts paid as customs bonds have been coming down in the succeeding years as the value of exports to the US and the rate of anti-dumping duties have been falling consistently in the following years. While the anti-dumping duties fell from 10.17 per cent to 0.79 per cent today, shrimp exports to the US have declined from Rs 950 crore to Rs 611 crore.
Source : Business Line