In 1943, the United States reached a bilateral trade agreement with Mexico that established a duty-free rate for imports of shrimp into our country. Since then, customs duty rates for shrimp imports into the United States have been bound at that level (zero tariffs).
The absence of any tariffs on foreign shrimp has played a huge role in the dominance of imports in our market. The U.S. International Trade Commission estimates that 94 percent of the volume of shrimp consumed in the nation is imported from other countries. In 2021, the United States set a record with roughly 2 billion pounds of imported shrimp products valued at $8 billion.
While America has not imposed regular customs tariffs on shrimp imports, this is not true of the countries that supply the vast majority of shrimp to our market.
Over 90 percent of the volume of shrimp imported into the country last year came from just four nations: India, Ecuador, Indonesia, and Vietnam. Each of these countries imposes significant tariffs on any U.S.-origin shrimp that might be imported into their country. Moreover, these countries also impose significant additional taxes and charges for the importation of any U.S.-origin shrimp.
The table below compares the tariff rates and taxes applied on imports of foreign shrimp into the United States versus imports of U.S.-origin shrimp into India, Ecuador, Indonesia, and Vietnam. As shown, in total, although the United States imposes fees (taxes) of less than one-half of one percent of the value of shrimp imports, our four principal suppliers of shrimp impose tariff and tax rates of between 13 percent (Vietnam) and 45 percent (India and Ecuador) on U.S.-origin shrimp.
“It is impossible to explain to anyone in this industry why it is fair that we open our doors to shrimp from every corner of the earth when our trading partners have maintained high tariff barriers to any shrimp we might sell to them,” said John Williams, the executive director of the Southern Shrimp Alliance. “This industry has no objection to international trade, but the terms of trade must be fair and they cannot continue to put America last. The Southern Shrimp Alliance welcomes any trade policy that restores reciprocity to our terms of trade with the rest of the world.”
Review tariff and tax rate information for imports of U.S.-origin shrimp into India, Ecuador, Indonesia, and Vietnam obtained from CUSTOMS Info’s Global Tariff Information here: https://shrimpalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/US-Shrimp-Tariff-and-Tax-Info-India-Ecuador-Indonesia-Vietnam.pdf
Read about tools available to determine import tariffs in other countries from the U.S. Department of Commerce here: https://www.trade.gov/import-tariffs-fees-overview-and-resources
Access CUSTOMS Info’s free Global Tariff Information (registration required) database here: https://export.customsinfo.com/Default.aspx