Yesterday, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) issued questionnaires to the members of the U.S. shrimp industry that are fishermen, farmers, and processors. The ITC also issued questionnaires to all U.S. shrimp importers, to U.S. shrimp purchasers, and foreign shrimp processors and exporters, in the final phase of the agency’s investigations of unfairly-traded frozen warmwater shrimp from Ecuador, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam.
Responses to these questionnaires are due to the ITC by no later than July 26, 2024.
U.S. shrimp fishermen, any companies operating shrimp farms in the United States, and U.S. shrimp processors have been requested to provide information regarding their business’ operations in 2021, 2022, and 2023 and the first quarters of 2022 and 2023.
The questionnaires issued to U.S. shrimp processors are far more detailed than what the ITC issued to harvesters and seek information regarding the financial, production, and sales experience from these processors. Further, U.S. shrimp processors have been asked to provide pricing information regarding five specific shrimp products on a quarterly basis from January 2021 through March 2024.
Questionnaire responses should be filled out electronically, through the MS Word-formatted questionnaires released by the ITC. Responses are filed directly with the agency, either by e-mail or through a secure drop box, following the instructions provided at the end of the questionnaire. If someone cannot use the MS Word-formatted questionnaire to complete the response, the ITC asks that the agency be contacted for further instructions.
The responses to these questionnaires will be analyzed by the ITC to determine whether antidumping and countervailing duties on frozen warmwater shrimp imported from Ecuador, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam should be imposed. While antidumping duties are currently imposed on shrimp imports from India and Vietnam, these duties do not address any subsidies that the shrimp industries in those countries receive. Shrimp imports from Ecuador and Indonesia are currently imported duty-free.
The agency will use information obtained from the responses to the questionnaires to evaluate whether the U.S. shrimp industry is suffering material injury by reason of unfairly-traded imports.
The ITC also issued a schedule for the conduct of its investigation, with a public hearing to take place on Wednesday, October 16, 2024 at 9:30 am.
The ITC is conducting this investigation in response to petitions for trade relief filed by the American Shrimp Processors Association in October 2023.
The ITC’s U.S. Farmers’/Fishermen’s Questionnaire can be accessed here: https://shrimpalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/US-fishermens-Shrimp-F.doc
The ITC’s U.S. Processors’ Questionnaire can be accessed here: https://shrimpalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/US-producers-Shrimp-F.doc
The ITC’s notice published in the Federal Register regarding the schedule for the final phase of the antidumping duty investigations of Ecuadorian and Indonesian shrimp and the countervailing duty investigations of Ecuadorian, Indian, Indonesian, and Vietnamese shrimp may be reviewed here: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/06/26/2024-13967/frozen-warmwater-shrimp-from-ecuador-india-indonesia-and-vietnam-scheduling-of-the-final-phase-of
All of the questionnaires issued by the ITC, along with other information regarding the ITC’s investigation is available at the agency’s website here: https://ids.usitc.gov/case/8152/investigation/8505