US: Shrimpers petition for relief from subsidized imports

By Associated Press

GULF OF MEXICO — Shrimpers have filed petitions with the federal government seeking relief from subsidized shrimp imports. The move came several weeks after Gulf of Mexico shrimpers hailed a House bill that included a provision to increase U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s powers to combat illegal imports.

The Coalition of Gulf Shrimp Industries filed the petitions, which seek “countervailing duties” — duties imposed to offset subsidies by foreign governments — on shrimp from China, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. The coalition states that the duties are needed “to offset the unfair trade advantage currently held by these countries.”

The petitions will be investigated by the U.S. International Trade Commission and the Department of Commerce, with final determinations expected in the second half of 2013. The coalition states that the seven countries have aggressively undercut domestic prices more and more since 2009 through about $13.5 billion in subsidies for their aquaculture and seafood processing industries — with the shrimp industry the primary recipient.

But even before 2009, the Gulf has seen massive declines to its domestic shrimp industry with annual catch falling from 322 million pounds in 2000 to 212 million pounds in 2008. Meanwhile, the price per pound dropped from $2.78 in 2000 to $1.66 in 2008, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service-commissioned research.

During that same eight-year period, annual imports jumped from 625 million pounds to 948 million.

Twenty years ago, 80 percent of shrimp consumed in the United States came from domestic producers, with 20 percent imported. Although Louisiana leads the country in domestic production of shrimp, it amounts to less than 5 percent of the shrimp consumed in the United States. More than 90 percent of U.S. consumption is from imports.

The petitions document more than one hundred programs benefiting shrimp producers in these sevenMarki