On November 4, 2004, the Southern Shrimp Alliance sent a letter to Department of Commerce Secretary Donald Evans in response to threats of illegal retaliation by Thailand on American soybean products if antidumping duties are imposed on dumped Thai shrimp imports.
The Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA) is very concerned by recent attempts by foreign interests and domestic lobbying groups to undermine U.S. trade laws through extortion. In particular, we are disturbed by the October 29, 2004 request by the American Soybean Association for the United States to avoid imposing any further duties on foreign shrimp producers preliminarily found to violate our trade laws due to Thailand’s illegal threats of retaliation. The SSA supports your stated commitment to vigorously enforce our trade laws “[w]here inappropriate subsidies or illegal dumping occur.” We encourage the Department of Commerce to objectively evaluate the facts and apply the law in determining final antidumping margins.