The US Department of Commerce (DoC) plans to hit each Vietnamese pangasius firm selling to the US with the same blanket anti-dumping tariff from March 2018, a source has told Undercurrent News.

On Sept. 2 the DoC informed lawyers working on trade tariff negotiations between the US and Vietnam that it had assigned a preliminary duty rate of $2.39 per kilogram to each company.

For comparison, the current duty period of review (number 12) had exporters paying the following:

• Cuu Long Fish Joint Stock Company: $0.69/kg
• Godaco Seafood Joint Stock Company: $0.69/kg
• Green Farms Seafood Joint Stock Company: $0.69/kg
• NTSF Seafoods Joint Stock Company: $0.69/kg
• Hung Vuong Group: $0.41/kg
• The Vietnam-wide entity tariff was set at $2.39/kg

The Vietnam-wide entity included Golden Quality, Tafishco and Viet Phu, and Caseamex, Undercurrent was informed back in March 2017.

Essentially then these preliminary rates -- which have no effect until finalized in March 2018 -- mean all exporters to the US face the highest-possible Vietnam-wide rate; a move which the industry is set to appeal against in the strongest possible terms, soon, Undercurrent's source expects.

The period of review 13 impacts any pangasius firms which shipped to the US from Aug. 1 2015 to July 31, 2016, and that requested a DoC review -- or firms for which US "petitioners" requested a review. This is thought to exclude Vinh Hoan Corporation and Bien Dong Seafood, who settled with petitioners at the beginning of the review, and so will keep their existing duty rates.

The source told Undercurrent he believed petitioners had made "false allegations", and had been meeting with the DoC to argue that "the entire [Vietnamese] industry was engaged in ways to circumvent and reimburse duties".

The feeling is that DoC has misinterpreted or failed to take into account the facts as stated by companies, during the review process.

As well as the whole industry finding ways to circumvent anti-dumping duties, it is understood one or more Vietnamese companies were alleged by the DoC to have incorrectly reported moisture levels in shipped pangasius fillets.

"We strongly disagree with their view, and believe it is both legally and factually incorrect," he said. "It was a totally open-book process."

The source said the issue would be "fought hard" before the final determination, and he believes the decision can yet be reversed. He hoped to see a statement by Vietnam's Association of Seafood Exporters and Processors (Vasep) before long.

Vasep executives were not immediately available for comment to Undercurrent. 

Lawyers for Vietnamese companies will now review the preliminary decision and prepare legal briefs, due 30 days from the DoC's announcement which, in turn, is expected after the Labor Day holiday (Sept. 4).

A hearing at the DoC is then expected shortly after this 30-day period. Executives with the DoC could not be reached for comment. 

Undercurrent's source said that, at a recent meeting he had attended, there had been those in both the Vietnamese pangasius and shrimp sectors who felt the issue of anti-dumping tariffs was one that was worth taking to the World Trade Organization.

"That's a five-year process, and though there were some in favor of that, in this case the preferable outcome is certainly that we can hold bilateral talks and straighten this out before March 2018."

On the cards?

In November 2016 Jim Gulkin -- CEO of Siam Canadian Group -- suggested to Undercurrent the anti-global trade rhetoric of then-incoming US president Donald Trump was troubling for US farmed shrimp and whitefish buyers and suppliers.

Seeing as Trump ran on a promise of protecting American industries producing for the domestic market, lobbyists for the US wild shrimp and farmed catfish sector -- the Southern Shrimp Alliance and the Catfish Farmers of America -- “could very likely get his ear”, he felt.

“If they do, I certainly would expect more protectionist measures to come into place. More anti-dumping and countervailing duties,” he said.

In April 2017 Mississippi senators Roger Wicker and Thad Cochran asked the US International Trade Commission to keep in place anti-dumping duties on foreign shrimp.

That same month the American Shrimp Processors Association said it was pleased with two trade-related executive orders signed by Trump, who had signed two executive orders aimed at foreign "cheaters" who do not follow US import laws, which he said are largely to blame for the US trade deficit.

Source: UCN