On Thursday, the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) issued an opinion upholding the U.S. Department of Commerce’s (Commerce) final determination that the Vietnamese shrimp industry benefitted from countervailable subsidies and was unfairly-trading in the United States. As the result of Commerce’s finding and the International Trade Commission’s determination that the U.S. shrimp industry was materially injured by unfairly traded shrimp imports, a countervailing duty order was imposed on Vietnamese shrimp in December 2024.
After the federal agency conducted an examination of the subsidies received by Soc Trang Seafood Joint Stock Company (STAPIMEX), Commerce determined that the Vietnamese shrimp exporter had a countervailing duty rate of 2.84 percent. This countervailing duty rate was, in turn, applied to every other Vietnamese shrimp exporter, with one exception. The one exception, Thong Thuan Company Limited, received a countervailing duty rate of 221.82 percent. Importers of Vietnamese shrimp are currently required to make countervailing duty deposits at these rates on all entries of Vietnamese shrimp, in addition to other duties (including antidumping duties) owed.
STAPIMEX challenged Commerce’s determination at the CIT, arguing that the federal agency did not have sufficient evidentiary support for finding that the Vietnamese government subsidized STAPIMEX through its “Exemption or Reduction of Rents for Encouraged Industries” program. The CIT’s opinion, authored by Judge Leo M. Gordon, rejected STAPIMEX’s argument, holding that the Vietnamese exporter was “really asking the court to second-guess Commerce’s selection of data from a record containing multiple flawed but reasonable options, and to reweigh the evidence on the record in evaluating the reasonableness of Commerce’s ultimate selection.” The Court declined to step into the shoes of the federal agency and found that Commerce had acted reasonably in assessing the reliability of the evidence on the administrative record.
In addition to attorneys for the U.S. Department of Justice, Commerce’s final determination was successfully defended at the CIT by lawyers for the American Shrimp Processors Association, the organization that petitioned for countervailing duty relief, and the Ad Hoc Shrimp Trade Action Committee.
Read the CIT’s decision in Soc Trang Seafood Joint Stock Company (STAPIMEX) v. United States (Slip Op. 26-3, January 8, 2026) here: https://www.cit.uscourts.gov/sites/cit/files/26-03.pdf