According to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), the Vietnam Trade Office in the US expressed dissatisfaction and made the protest during a consultation on January 19 with the Import Administration (IT) under the US Department of Commerce (DOC)’s International Trade Administration (ITA).
The antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) lawsuit targeting Vietnam ’s frozen warm-water shrimp products may have negative impacts on the strongly developing economic-trade relations between the two countries.
The Vietnamese Government will consider carefully arguments in the US petition as well as necessary legal options to protect the legitimate interests of Vietnamese shrimp breeders and businesses involving in export shrimp production and processing.
VASEP said that if the ITA decides to launch investigations under the lawsuit and impose a certain AD/CVD tax rate on Vietnam ’s frozen warm-water shrimp, it will be an unfair decision and a double taxation measure that greatly affects the life of more than 600,000 Vietnamese shrimp farmers and processors.
An IT representative affirmed that the US will consider in a careful and serious manner the standpoints of Vietnam and other related countries, saying that the DOC will address this lawsuit independently without connection with the retaliation or punishment of any other lawsuit.
According to latest information, the US International Trade Commission (US-ITC) will release preliminary determinations on whether the US shrimp industry suffered losses or not on February 11.
The ITA has to date completed separate consultations with each out of seven countries involved in the lawsuit, including Vietnam, China, India, Ecuador, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.
