Vietnam worried about shrimp sanctions
CA MAU CITY - After losing a major trade dispute with the United States over catfish tariffs, Vietnam is worried about the possible
impact on an even bigger market: its shrimp.
The U.S. International Trade Commission ruled Wednesday that Vietnam illegally dumped catfish on the American market, and it
upheld the imposition of crippling duties - an outcome some fear will start a landslide of trade sanctions against other seafood
exports. On Thursday, the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Processors denounced the decision, saying it showed
how "a small group of fillet breeders in some southern states of the U.S. can put pressure on American authorities" to ignore the
principles of competition and free trade it preaches worldwide.
Upholding a similar finding by the U.S. Department of Commerce last month, the commission sided with catfish farmers in the
Mississippi Delta, who filed suit last June arguing that Vietnam had unfairly captured 20 percent of the $590 million catfish market
by undercutting their prices. The ruling means tariffs ranging from 37 percent to 64 percent on frozen fillets shipped to America by
Vietnamese exporters will be assessed retroactively to the date of the Commerce Department decision.
The U.S. farmers had already won an earlier victory by persuading Congress to force Vietnam to change the name of its catfish to
the Vietnamese terms "tra" and "basa."
Hanoi has maintained that it could afford to sell its fillets at lower prices because labor and feed in the developing country are cheap.
But the United States says that since Vietnam is a "non-market economy," its claims to have low labor costs cannot be measured
properly against that of a free market.The ruling is a major blow to Vietnam's catfish industry, which employs about 400,000 people
in the Mekong Delta region. A third of its exports had gone to the United States.
"This has disappointed not only the Vietnamese entrepreneurs and tens of thousands of catfish farmers but the American
consumers," the Foreign Ministry said Thursday. Vietnam warned of a "negative impact on economic and trade relations." The
catfish controversy was the first major trade spat to erupt between the two countries since a landmark trade pact in 2001. But more
worrying to some is that the current ruling sets a negative precedent for future trade.
"Catfish in absolute form is not a big item, but it's a very symbolic step," said economist Le Dang Doanh. "It's the first lesson of
Vietnam. The more successful the Vietnamese exporters are, the more difficulties they face." On the heels of the catfish ruling, U.S.
shrimp producers are considering filing a similar anti-dumping complaint against Vietnam and several other major shrimp-producing
countries.
Vietnam last year exported $467.3 million worth of shrimp to the United States, dwarfing the $55 million in catfish shipments,
according to Vietnamese figures. It ranked second only to Thailand in the first quarter of this year in shrimp exports to the United
States, according to the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization.
Farmers in southern Ca Mau province, where the major shrimp farms are based, are worried their crop may be targeted next."I
cannot imagine how much the impact will be on our shrimp industry if the United States decides to raise the tax," said Nguyen Thi
Tuyet, deputy director of Ca Mau Fishery Management.
But some U.S. shrimpers said it is unlikely that tariffs will be imposed because U.S. fishermen, unlike farmers, have little political
clout.
"The crawfish and catfish industries come under agriculture, and the agriculture people get more help," said A.J. Fabre, president of
the Louisiana Shrimp Association. U.S. shrimp producers say importers are not held to the same health and safety regulations and
that some seafood shipments have been enhanced by antibiotics.
"They're totally flooding our market," said Wilma Anderson, executive director of the Texas Shrimp Association, which is considering
filing suit as part of the Southern Shrimp Alliance. "Their shrimp shouldn't even be in our market. The shrimp on the market is not
healthy for human consumption."
By Margie Mason - The Associated Press - July 24, 2003
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