Posted on 07/03/2004 5:42:25 AM PDT by BellStar
On a busy Thursday afternoon, people stood in line to buy shrimp at Rose's Seafood, a no-frills market on a little waterfront street in Kemah. What wasn't as obvious is that roughly half the shrimp spread out before them in big, wet piles were imported — although the market is located a stone's throw from where shrimp boats dock.
Shrimp producers from countries like China and Vietnam,plus four others, are facing the distinct possibility of paying substantial duties as the result of an anti-dumping petition working its way through Washington.
The first indications of how big the duties will be will come Tuesday when the Commerce Department revealsits preliminary decision on China and Vietnam, to be followed late this month by decisions on India,Thailand, Ecuador and Brazil.
At this point, nobody knows how high officials will set the duties, which are supposed to protect U.S. fishermen from unfair competition by raising the priceof imported shrimp here. The domestic shrimpers arefollowing the lead of catfish and crawfish farmers, who have won similar cases.
In a sign that the decision is headed in favor of domestic shrimpers, the U.S. International Trade Commission in February made a preliminary finding of injury to the industry. As with the Commerce Department, it still must make a final decision.
The final numbers aren't expected until late this year or in early 2005.Nobody really knows how much the cost of shrimp will increase at fish markets like Rose's. Manager Tina Tran says it could be on the order of $2 per pound or even $2.50 per pound, on top of the nearly $9 per pound the jumbo size already costs.
44 percent increase? A group representing the American Seafood Distributors Association and the Consuming Industries Trade Action Coalition calculates that retail prices will go up 30 percent under one range of duties, and 44 percent under another range.
Under the latter scenario by the group that opposes the sanctions, the price of U.S.-caught shrimp would go up28 percent, the cost of imported shrimp from the targeted countries would rise 84 percent, and shrimp from other importing countries would rise 19 percent.
"Shrimp has become America's No. 1 seafood becauseimports of high-quality, affordable shrimp have allowed more American restaurants — from family owned restaurants to the most popular chains — to sell a wider variety of shrimp dishes, and American grocery stores to sell millions of pounds of shrimp," Wally Stevens, representing the group, said in a prepared statement.
"Without these imports, shrimp would still be an expensive luxury food that only the rich can afford."
Shrimp boat owners and shrimp processors, representing major states including Louisiana and Texas, describe the anti-dumping effort as a last-ditch effort to stay in business in the face of zooming imports of pond-raised shrimp, which have slashed prices they are able to get at the boat.
Imports have grown to the point that some 87 percent of all shrimp consumed in the United States came from other countries by 2002, and probably grew since then.
The wholesale price is said to be at a 40-year low.
Prices down, fuel costs up In Dickinson, longtime shrimper Richard Moore says prices are off by 40 to 50 percent because of imports that started to take off in late 2000. Meanwhile, the cost of diesel fuel has risen.
"This industry has been cut in half," he said, adding that the duties won't cure everything, but they are a start.
The U.S. shrimp industry is in dire straits, said Eddie Gordon, president of the Southern Shrimp Alliance,representing the eight states. Companies are closing, unemployment is rising and boats are being repossessed,he said.
"The key reason is the high and increasing level of dumped shrimp entering the U.S. market," he said in a prepared statement.
Blaming the middleman The shrimpers say fair pricing won't necessarily cause an increase at retail and will not limit the amount that can be imported. They cite a study indicating thatretail hasn't gone down like wholesale.
"Too many people in the middle are making all the money," Moore said.
Trade has to be unfair in order to be subject to duties. The government will study the costs to raise shrimp in the six countries and what these shrimp are sold for at home.
The anti-dumping tactic has been used successfully in recent years by catfish farmers who went after Vietnam,crawfish raisers in Louisiana who got duties on frozen crawfish tails from China, and honey producers who got duties on Chinese imports.
In the case of catfish, the farm price has risen to 72 cents a pound in March, compared with 58 cents a pounda year earlier, mostly because of duties that kicked in late last year. Frozen catfish fillets, the specific target of duties, were $2.68 a pound in May, compared with $2.42 a year ago, according to government statistics.
nelson.antosh@chron.com
"...Your friend is no friend he is a shill for the United Nations,because they want to see an end to fishing in this country..."
I can ASSURE you that my friend is no shill for the U.N. He knows the U.N. is a nest of parasites. He'd fall out of his chair laughing if he read your post!
You would see another American industry go down in flames? I think you have an agenda that has not one thing to do with conservation.
Oh, I'm all in favor of 'putting America first' but I'm not in favor of stealing from my fellow citizens. Tariffs are a legitimate method for raising government revenue, but they should not be used to enrich one group of Americans at the expense of another.
When you begin to use tariffs to protect jobs you have embarked upon a perilous path for a conservative and you should be prepared to answer some questions.
The first question is just how much power do you wish to give to the government? Once you accept the premise that using tariffs to protect jobs is legitimate, you must be prepared to describe just which jobs will be protected and how many jobs will be protected.
Suppose you decide that the jobs of 100,000 shrimpers must be protected. Now you must decide upon the price of shrimp that will ensure 100,000 shrimpers keep their jobs. That means you'll have to decide upon a wage level that will ensure 100,000 persons will take jobs as shrimpers. And, you'll have to set up a system to monitor the employment levels in the shrimping business. If the number of shrimpers drop below 100,000, you will have to increase the tariffs and if the number goes above, then you'll have to drop the tariffs. It should be evident at this point that you will have decided, as a matter of national policy, that Americans should eat a certain amount of shrimp, ie, the output of 100,000 shrimpers.
Sure, you can do these things but you will have given the government the power and the obligation to determine how many people will work in the shrimp industry, how much they will be paid, and how much shrimp Americans will consume. You will notice that government has decided these things and they will have an obligation to 'regulate trade', ie, the price of shrimp until these things happen whether the American people desire to work as shrimpers or consume shrimp. Now, tell me this is a conservative thing to do.
And, once you have the shrimping industry humming like a well oiled machine, you're going to have to deal with every other industry, all with their own demands to protect jobs. You wind up with a situation where the government, not the people, determines who will work where and how much they will be paid, and how much of their product will be consumed by other Americans. Is this the kind of conservative world you want? And, now you must answer the really important question, just how does this world differ from the other types of central planning systems, ie, socialism, facism, etc.
Shrimp die if water temperature dips below 40F. In the Continental U.S., the only places suitable for outdoor shrimp ponds are extreme south Florida and extreme Southern California, and real estate in both places is too valuable to use for shrimp ponds. Shrimp cultivation has been tried in the Mississippi delta and in South Carolina, but it hasn't worked very well. And it's damned hard to keep the herons, raccoons, otters, etc, from sneaking in and eating up the stock. If we want farm-raised shrimp, we'll be importing them.
You think wrong.
Heads up!
You are embarrassing yourself. I'm involved in this issue, and I KNOW that commercial fishing is devastating fish stocks. This isn't just a "U.N. line", it's the TRUTH. A worldwide shutdown of commercial fishing would be just fine with me. Recreational fisherman take a tiny portion of the total catch, especially or large offshore fish.
"Wha? A producer is not allowed to set a price for his goods?"
I said they have no right to demand that you pay a specific price. Prices are set in the market place between willing sellers and purchasers. If you don't like the price offered, you have the right to seek other sellers. In this case, using tariffs to restrict competition, gives the seller the power to set prices at the expense of the consumer since the consumer has no other source of supply.
Or looking at this from a different perspective, should the consumer have the ability to demand that the producer sell at a specific price and to use the power of government to enforce that demand?
Damn, how did they get those things to keep from sinking?
They had camper shells on the pickups, and they used ice chests to store their product. Their supplies were frequently limited, and they would often sell out.
The people I purchased from were part of a chain that sold what the restaurants, merchants and food processors did not buy. They had a couple refrigerated trucks that would visit the various roadside set-ups and distribute fresh product. The roadside trucks, which were painted a hideous lavender, just act as the storefronts. I knew of several locations for the trucks in the New Orleans and Baton Rouge areas. The prices were lower than those in supermarkets or seafood shops, and they knew that their continued success depended on selling quality products.
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