VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnam’s shrimp exports to the US are now taxed less than one percent, but shrimp exporters are not optimistic about exports.

The US Department of Commerce (DOC) officially announced its decision on Vietnam’s shrimp products after the ninth administration review (POR9) imposed an anti-dumping tax rate of below one percent.

Analysts commented that the decision was a ‘lifebuoy’ for Vietnam which is witnessing a sharp decrease in shrimp exports. The US is one of the largest markets for Vietnam’s shrimp.

A report from the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) showed that Vietnam exported $1 billion worth of shrimp to the US in 2014, which accounted for 25 percent of total shrimp export value.

VASEP’s secretary general Truong Dinh Hoe commented that the DOC decision, to some extent, will help boost shrimp exports to the US, which would help improve the business performance of shrimp exporters in the last months of the year.

However, Hoe said this was not a reason for Vietnamese seafood exporters to be optimistic, because the market is determined by demand & supply and the exchange rate policy.

Tran Van Linh, general director of the Da Nang-based Thuan Phuoc Trade JSC, agreeing with Hoe, said: “High or low anti-dumping duties cannot tell you anything”, meaning that exports could not be revived just because of lower taxes.

The US once imposed a high anti-dumping tax of 6.37 percent on average after the eighth administration review (from February 1, 2012 to January 31, 2013).

The DOC’s high tax rate threatened Vietnamese seafood exporters. However, the situation was not as tough as predicted. Shrimp exports still grew well in 2014 despite the high tax.

Meanwhile, after the preliminary announcement from the POR9 in early 2015, though the taxes were low, exports have been decreasing.

Vietnam’s shrimp exports to the US in the first eight months of the year decreased by 51 percent compared with the same period last year. This was attributed to problems in supply and to competition from India and Indonesia. 

Linh said that this had not only affected exports to the US, but to Europe and Japan, two markets which have not imposed an anti-dumping tax. 

“Therefore, it would be a blunder to hope the low anti-dumping duties would help boost exports,” Linh said.

In 2014, Thuan Phuoc imposed a tax rate of 6.37 percent after POR8, but it still exported $105 million worth of shrimp products to the US. 

Meanwhile, the exports to the US have been discouraging since March 2015, despite the 1.16 tax rate after POR9.

TBKTSG