SSA Appeals Reduction in Indian Shrimp Duties
SSA disagrees with a U.S. Court of International Trade determination that led the Department of Commerce to reduce duties assessed on Indian shrimp imports. At SSA’s direction, the Ad Hoc Shrimp Trade Action Committee (AHSTAC) appealed the change of India’s antidumping duty rate from 3.06% to 1.73% to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
The final opportunity to file briefs in the appeal concluded in June. Only AHSTAC and the Indian shrimp exporters submitted legal briefs. The Commerce Department has chosen to not further defend the reduction in duties before the Federal Circuit. Next, the Federal Circuit may order oral arguments in the appeal.
Gulf Council Needs Better Balance
There is a striking imbalance of commercial and recreational interests serving on the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council even though maintaining balanced representation on the Council is a statutory requirement. For example, the shrimp industry is the most valuable commercial fishery that the Council manages, yet it has lacked any representatives on the Council since last summer.
In June, SSA joined other Gulf fisheries to send a letter to Secretary Raimondo, head of the Department of Commerce. The letter expresses extreme concern about the representation imbalance. Later, SSA met with senior NOAA officials to reinforce the shrimp industry’s specific concerns.
SSA Responds to Environmental Groups Petition on Rice’s Whales
This past month, SSA responded to a petition by a coalition of environmental groups to create new regulatory rules to protect endangered Rice’s Whales. The environmental organizations request that NOAA limit vessel speeds to ten knots or less, prohibit nighttime transit, and implement other vessel-related mitigation measures in the whale’s core habitat of the Gulf of Mexico. In its comments, SSA highlighted how several rules proposed in the petition would harm the shrimp industry and create severe maritime safety issues and recommended strongly against their adoption.
SSA also requested NOAA carefully evaluate the scientific merits of the petition and, should it decide to move forward with rulemaking, work with the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, Shrimp Advisory Panel, and U.S. Coast Guard to evaluate the full impact of the rules.
ITC Found the U.S. Shrimp Industry More Profitable in 2021
In its third Sunset Review, the International Trade Commission (ITC) found that U.S. shrimp fishermen and processors were more profitable than in previous investigations. The ITC analyzed financial data from 2019 to 2021 from a record 329 harvesters (more than 21% of U.S. shrimp production) across all eight states and processors.
The period reviewed was characterized by relative stability for the shrimp industry until the end of 2021. That is when fuel costs increased significantly for fishermen and end-of-period inventories substantially increased for the processors. A significant portion of responding firms reported losses throughout the review period, with 25.2 percent of respondents reporting operating losses and 27.8 percent reporting net losses in 2021. The information demonstrated to the ITC both the effectiveness and need for continued antidumping duties.
Media Reports on Industry Supported with Data
SSA regularly supplies reporters (and elected officials) with data and analysis to explain the U.S. shrimp industry’s dire situation. SSA is the only source compiling a broad array of information, which provides critical context to local shrimper stories. That is why Edible and CivilEats sought out SSA for consumer stories in June.
SSA shares the results of our research publicly to create change. For example, India’s PharmaBiz referenced SSA’s analysis of refusal data in its call for action to address banned antibiotics in Indian shrimp aquaculture in June.