VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnamese seafood exporters have got off the hook after the US DOC dropped the 4.7 percent anti-dumping tax on Vietnam’s shrimp. It has also won the CVD lawsuit. The “brace” is believed to pave the way for more shrimp exports to the US market.

Tran Van Linh, General Director of the Thuan Phuoc Seafood and Trade Company in Da Nang, called the victory “an exploit.”

The anti-dumping tax had been in place since 2004. The new zero rate will be applied for two years until a new review is made.

This is the first time that the US has acknowledged that no Vietnamese shrimp are being dumped. All the 33 Vietnamese shrimp exporters will now enjoy a zero tax rate on shrimp products exported to the US.

Shrimp is the major seafood export item of Vietnam, while the US is a big market for Vietnam. Therefore, the anti-dumping taxation caused big damages to the Vietnamese shrimp industry for a long time.

Therefore, it is understandable why seafood exporters hope the exports to the US would increase again when the barriers have been removed. Vietnam now has great opportunities to boost exports to the US also because China and Thailand, the other shrimp exporters, have poor crops.

Le Hong Son, Director of the Central Region Seafood Import-Export JSC, also said Vietnamese shrimps now can “go on a wide path” to the US.

However, he said, he said it is really challenging to export products to the market. Vietnamese exporters not only have to deal with the troubles relating to the commercial lawsuits, but they cannot sell shrimp at high prices.

The US not only imports shrimp from Vietnam, but from many other markets such as Thailand, Indonesia and China. Therefore, though the heavy burden of tax has been lifted, the exporters still have to do many things to make Vietnamese shrimps more competitive and more valuable.

Shrimp exporters have every reason to worry that Vietnam’s shrimp cannot enter the US market, though the door is open widely. The lack of materials currently has put exporters on tenterhooks.

Son said that the domestic shrimp supply remains unstable due to the unclear shrimp cultivation development programming. The epidemics have killed shrimp in big quantities, leading to the short supply.

Meanwhile, Chinese businessmen have jumped into the domestic market to scramble for shrimp materials with Vietnamese seafood processing companies.

According to Son, the poor shrimp crops in China have prompted Chinese businessmen to look for shrimp materials everywhere, including Vietnam. The shrimp supplies are getting exhausted as Chinese collect everything they can and accept to pay any prices to buy shrimp.

In June and July, Chinese businessmen paid a little higher than Vietnamese merchants to farmers. However, the gap in the prices became sharper in August and September.

“They collect everything, from small to big shrimps, from low quality to high quality products,” Son said.

A lot of small scaled processing workshops have suspended the production because of the lack of materials. Son’s company has to pay higher prices to be able to buy shrimp. He has to send staff to remote areas, where Chinese businessmen do not reach to, to collect materials.

However, he fears that if Vietnamese shrimp continue “flowing” to China, the situation would be more serious.

Hai Quan