The US is suing 4 shrimp 'powerhouses'. How big is the risk to Vietnamese shrimp?

Fear of being taxed less

The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) said: At the end of October, the American Shrimp Producers Association (ASPA) filed an anti-dumping lawsuit against shrimp from Ecuador and Indonesia with the US Department of Commerce (DOC); and also filed a countervailing duty (CVD) lawsuit against shrimp from Ecuador, Indonesia, India and Vietnam. These are all the world's leading "powers" in the shrimp industry.

Vietnam's strength is value-added shrimp products, and there is a risk that cheap shrimp products will compete fiercely in other markets if the US imposes anti-dumping and anti-subsidy taxes on shrimp from the countries being sued.

Citing the story of 8 years ago, when the Americans filed an anti-dumping lawsuit against Vietnamese shrimp, Dr. Ho Quoc Luc, former Chairman of VASEP, recalled that the result was that the functional agencies of our Government proved that the activities of the Vietnamese shrimp industry were proactive by the participating entities. The Government only supported orientation, strategy, policies, infrastructure, etc. and the US functional agencies concluded that Vietnamese shrimp did not receive subsidies, so the lawsuit was dismissed.

Currently, Indian and Vietnamese shrimp are still subject to anti-dumping tax with the plaintiff's lawsuit from the end of 2003. However, the tax rate for Vietnamese shrimp enterprises is 0% and that of India is 3.88%. Also at this time, Indian shrimp has the highest market share in the US with about 37%, Ecuadorian shrimp rose to second place with over 20% slightly higher than Indonesian shrimp, Vietnam only reached about 8%.

Vietnamese shrimp has a modest market share because shrimp from the other three countries have very low selling prices and Vietnamese shrimp are mainly processed products with added value. This is also the reason why ASPA's plaintiff lawyers have provisionally calculated the anti-dumping tax on shrimp from Ecuador to be 111% and on shrimp from Indonesia to be 37%.

Mr. Luc predicted that the CVD lawsuit would have a satisfactory outcome. However, it is necessary to be prepared in advance. Last week, VASEP held a meeting with shrimp enterprises participating in the US market and asked the law firm for advice. These enterprises will answer the necessary questions so that the law firm can soon have a response for rights protection activities.

Worry about competing with cheap shrimp

According to Dr. Luc, it is necessary to focus on considering the impact of the anti-dumping lawsuit, if it occurs. The anti-dumping tax rate for Ecuadorian and Indonesian shrimp that will be announced by DOC is not yet known, but with the shrimp consumption price of these defendants being very low, the tax rate will be a large number. Assuming that Ecuadorian shrimp is taxed at only about 30% and Indonesian shrimp at about 10%, it will still cause huge losses for shrimp businesses in these two countries if the shrimp industry's profit margin is below 5%. At that time, shrimp exporting businesses of these two countries will have to shift their markets to the EU, China, Japan, etc. At that time, Vietnamese shrimp will face fierce competition in all markets on a global scale. This is the most worrying issue.

Source link: https://thanhnien.vn/my-kien-4-cuong-quoc-tom-nguy-co-cua-tom-viet-lon-co-nao-185231105102443091.htm