Vietnam’s shrimp producers and exporters have been operating under the market mechanism for many years and not received any subsidy from the Government. Tran Thien Hai, President of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), made the statement in response to US companies’ filing of an anti-subsidy lawsuit against shrimp imports from Vietnam.
According to the Competition Management Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, on December 28, 2012, US shrimp producers filed a petition asking the US Department of Commerce (DOC) to conduct anti-subsidy investigation into frozen warm-water shrimp imported from several countries, including Vietnam.
They also asked the US International Trade Commission (ITC) to review losses caused by the imports, he added.
This is the US businesses’ fourth anti-subsidy lawsuit against products imported from Vietnam since 2009, after plastic bags, circular welded carbon-quality steel pipes and steel hangers, and the first against the country’s agricultural products.
Hai said that VASEP has informed Vietnamese businesses of the case and encouraged them to gather necessary documents and date to serve the US investigation.
According to VASEP, in the first 11 months of 2012, the US was the second largest importer of Vietnamese shrimp, after Japan . The turnover of shrimp exports from Vietnam to the US in the period exceeded 425 million USD, accounting for 20.6 percent of the country’s total shrimp exports.