Shrimp tariffs long overdue

Texas City Sun ^ | Published July 07, 2004 | By TJ Aulds

[BellStar]

Welcomed news from the U.S. Commerce Department Tuesday. For those who may have missed it, the Bush administration announced proposed tariffs on shrimp imports from China and Vietnam.

This comes after finding that companies were dumping shrimp into the United States at artificially low prices.

While we are usually cautious to call for such trade actions, Tuesday’s announcement by the Commerce Department is actually long overdue. Free trade is a good thing, when all sides play fair.

Chinese and Vietnamese companies are not doing that. That is why we think the actions of the Bush administration, albeit we are sure with a slight bit of political overtones, are the correct ones.

So, what does that mean for you?

Well, chances are good prices for the shrimp you eat will go up. They should not go up that much, but do be prepared to see a hike at your local seafood stand.

Those rising prices however should actually come in line with what the true market price for shrimp should be. At the same time it should give an important industry to our local economy a much needed even playing field.

Well, if not even, at least better conditions in which to compete.

Think about that the next time you head to the local seafood stand. Just where are your fish coming from?

Paying a little bit more for local shrimp and fish products does more than help the local shrimper. It helps the guy who the shrimper buys gasoline from.

It helps the local store the shrimper buys clothes for his kids. It helps the local car dealership where the shrimper goes to buy a new car or truck.

Chances are good it helps the place where you work because the majority of the local shrimpers we talk to make it a point to shop here at home.

There are no guarantees as to what impact if any these proposed tariffs will have or if and when they will be imposed. So chances are good there will be no relief for local shrimpers this summer or that the price of a shrimp cocktail at the Kemah Boardwalk will go up any before Labor Day.

Still, Tuesday’s actions went a long way to send an important message to other countries that the United States is all for free trade when it is actually free trade and not manipulated trade.

But it should also send us all an important message here locally. When you go out to eat or stop by the seafood stand to purchase shrimp, ask the server if what you are buying is Gulf Shrimp or imported shrimp.

If the answer is imported, maybe you could suggest to the shop owner or restaurant manager that you would prefer local shrimp.

That, we think, would have a bigger impact on equaling the balance of trade than waiting for the government to impose tariffs. It’s just another way of saying we would rather shop at home and see our money stay in the community.

— T.J. Aulds

[BellStar]

Bush Accuses Vietnam and China of Dumping Shrimp on U.S. Market

By ELIZABETH BECKER, N.Y. Times Here

[Drango]

From SF Chron...

Prepare for jumbo shrimp prices Costs could soar as a result of U.S. tariffs on imported catches Carolyn Said, Chronicle Staff Writer		Wednesday, July 7, 2004
Shrimp, the most popular seafood in America, may become more expensive soon as a result of new tariffs that the U.S. government is considering on imports from some countries in a move to bolster domestic shrimp production and prevent dumping, or sales at artificially low prices. On Tuesday, the Commerce Department announced preliminary tariffs on shrimp imported from China and Vietnam. Tariffs on sales from Thailand, Brazil, Ecuador and India may be imposed by the end of the month. Those six countries account for the lion's share of imported shrimp. Of the 1 billion pounds of shrimp consumed annually in the United States, about 87 percent is imported, according to the U.S. International Trade Commission. Shrimp importers and others are still puzzling over the exact impact of the proposed regulations. "It will translate into higher prices for shrimp in the very near future, " said Wally Stevens, president of the American Seafood Distributors Association, which represents importers, cold-storage warehouses, freight forwarders, truckers, restaurants and retailers. He was unable to predict just how high prices might go, however. The group originally forecast a 44 percent increase in shrimp prices based on the tariff that U.S. shrimp concerns had requested. The proposed tariffs, though, came in lower, but are variable, making calculations difficult. While tariffs for Chinese companies range from nothing to 112 percent, the average tariff will be 49 percent; Vietnamese company tariffs will range from 12 to 93 percent, with an average rate of 16 percent. The tariffs are calculated for individual companies based on financial information they provided the Commerce Department. John Sackton, editor and publisher of Seafood.com in Lexington, Mass., said the impact may be minimal. "Even though the numbers sound very drastic, I feel there are enough loopholes in this preliminary decision that a number of the major exporters in each country (China and Vietnam) will be able to ship large quantities to the U.S.," he said. He predicted that, naturally enough, the companies that will face no or low tariffs will see their U.S. business boom, while those slapped with big tariffs will concentrate on exporting to markets such as Japan and Europe. "It certainly is not going to make shrimp less expensive for the consumer, that is for certain," said Tom Elliott, vice president and general manager in San Francisco at Slade Gorton & Co., which imports 1.75 million pounds of shrimp per year. "It's a simplistic statement, but true: Any tariff we pay on shrimp will be passed on ultimately to the consumer (as) a higher price, whether it's 2 or 3 percent, which they probably wouldn't notice, or a 20 percent increase." Final tariffs won't be known until late this year or early next year, after the U.S. International Trade Commission and the Commerce Department each go through another round of reviewing the issue. The tariffs came about because U.S. shrimp-boat owners and shrimp processors, who are mainly based in Southern states, complained that their overseas rivals were dumping products on the market, driving prices so low that U.S. companies couldn't compete. Lee Nakamura, a partner at Tokyo Fish Market in Berkeley, which sells about 100 pounds of shrimp each week, said the shellfish will remain popular no matter what. "Shrimp is very important in all different styles of cooking," he said. "What we've noticed before when shrimp goes through seasons of being more expensive is that people tend to drop the size. They still buy it but get one size smaller."

[EQAndyBuzz]

American shrimp harvesters should get together and form a consortium and buy shrimp farms in Central America. My understanding is it does not take alot of people to run a shrimp boat or ancillary operations around it.

Yeah yeah, outsourcing, blah blah blah. Actually, it would subsidize local operations as well as enable the shrimp to regen in US waters.

The only people that this affects in a negative light would be Chinese/Vietnamese imports.

[dennisw]

Many Central American and Ecuadorian shrimp farms are "ethnic Chinese" owned. They had (have) the know how to plunge into the business.

[blanknoone]

There is a small beginning of a domestic shrimp farming industry, but I don't think it will thrive, at least not on a large scale in the near future. The problem is that almost all of the shrimp that get to large size (meaning shrimp cocktail shrimp as opposed to shrimp salad shrimp) are tropical. The two dominant farmed species are Vannamei, the pacific white shrimp, which is native to Ecuador (ie...equator hot) and Black Tiger, native to SE Asia, (ie Vietnam hot). South Texas and South Florida can grow them in the summer, but that means they only get one crop a year and it all hits at the same time. Tropical countries like Ecuador (biggest producer in the Americas) and Thailand (biggest producer in Asia) can operate continuously. The means year round growth, as well as steady regular supply as opposed to once a year surge. That makes for much more efficient use of processing infrastructure. Never mind the land and labor costs, the weather is an almost insurmountable competitive advantage, at least for the time being.

There is promise for the medium to long term future though. One option would be to start looking carefully for alternative species that do better in cooler temperatures. One promising candidate is P. Chinesis, a chinese shrimp that formed the backbone of China aquaculture until they switched to USDA selected vannamei. There are other possibilities out there in nature, we just haven't really looked hard for a cooler water shrimp suitable for aquaculture. There are hundreds of shrimp species...there is probably a suitable one out there.

Another possibility is the development of much higher density farming. That is a fundamentally different approach to the pond based aquaculture that totally dominates the shrimp industry. But as technology and knowledge improves, someday we may very well be able to do it indoors better than they can do it outdoors.

What I think is important is not so much that we protect our tiny (<1%) shrimp farming sector or even our bigger (~20%) shrimp fishing fleet. I think it is important to have fair trade. And by that I mean the real meaning of the word, not the corrupted version used by protectioninsts. The Chinese are cheating on world trade. They need to be punished. The goal is not to help us, but to punish them for breaking the rules. In the long run, America benefits far more from a healthy international marketplace than from artificially low shrimp prices because the Chicoms are dumping. That has a lot of effects...such as depressing investment in aquaculture in the rest of the world. In the long run, we'll get cheaper shrimp from a fair market than the Chi-coms dumping will ever give us.

[BellStar]

I will miss my mornings on our beautiful Bay, looking east, watching the sunrise and the parade of shrimp boats heading out to work.

[Tuscaloosa Goldfinch]

Same here. I look at the label if I buy frozen, and ask before I buy unfrozen. If it's Asia, I won't buy it.

[BellStar]

"In the long run, America benefits far more from a healthy international marketplace than from artificially low shrimp prices because the Chicoms are dumping. That has a lot of effects...such as depressing investment in aquaculture in the rest of the world. In the long run, we'll get cheaper shrimp from a fair market than the Chi-coms dumping will ever give us."

Bravo!

[T'wit]

Complaining about "artificially low prices" is like complaining about tax exemptions, cuddly puppies, sunshine, fresh hot cinnamon rolls and great sex.

[lonerepubinma]

This is nothing but a Bush/Cheney plot to ruin the budget at the Democrat Convention in Boston. Just how the heck can Fat Teddy jam 3 or 4 lbs of shrimp into his mouth and not break the bank ? How can Jesse stuff his pockets at an all you can eat buffet?? I say it's time to start a Congressional Commission to go after Bush.

[Lowell]

Ok, make it a small one.

[Piquaboy]

Since the tax is only on imported shrimp, I guess that Dasshole is safe.

[Renfield]

That drag-net ban more than paid for itself, in increased stocks of sport fish.

[Renfield]

I've fished around some shrimp boats off the Texas coast, and the majority of them had Vietnamese crews. Most of them can't even speak English. (These are American boats with Vietnamese crews....I suspect many are illegal aliens.) In fact, I've only met one person on a Gulf shrimp boat who COULD speak English!!!

That one man was a long, tall, rangy Texan with a white beard down to his waist (looked like an underfed version of Billy Gibbons). We pulled up to his boat, and he said, "Yaaalllll got any beer?" I traded him a 12-pack of cold Tecate for a gallon zip-lock bag full of headless 12-count shrimp. That was a pretty good trade.

[hedgetrimmer]

Its a 112% tariff I think.

The analysis I read said that consumers might not notice a price rise for some time, because the distributors will absorb it for a while. The profit the middlemen make on the shrimp is pretty large, they are the ones really profiting from the shrimp dumping.

The groups that oppose the tariff and are sqawking the loudest are the pond farmers in China, Vietnam, the manufacturers producing product like frozen fried shrimp in India, the volume buyers who import it and the companies that produce shrimp larvae, shrimp feed and pond equipment.

I'm guessing 60% or more of the companies that are putting pressure on the US government to eliminate tariffs are foreign companies.

[Brian Allen]

<< Shrimp tariffs long overdue >>

What a bunch of hypocritical bullshit in a country whose "parity-pricing" policies and other agricultural subsidies are the world's largest and have produced and continue to produce the multi-million ton mountains of unsold grains, butter and other produce that have stolen the markets of our allies and friends and have bankrupted so many of their farmers and ranchers!

And, for just one other example, whose auto-manufacturer-enriching subsidies in the form of "tarrif" taxes subsidise every "American-made" vehicle to the tune of an average Six Thousand Dollars.

Shame on this piece's author.

And even worse shame on our nation's feral gummint!

[saminfl]

Let's all take a moment to recall that the price of shrimp skyrocketed when the enviros pushed through a drag-net ban in florida.

I am still upset over that. Recently, I thought that since it has been ten years since the idiotic net ban amendment, we should be able to walk across Choctawhatchee bay on the backs of all the fish that should have come back. How long would it take the so-called missing fish to restore their numbers?

[cyborg]

This will be problematic at many international buffet eateries everywhere.

[snopercod]

That drag-net ban more than paid for itself, in increased stocks of sport fish.

Oh, I get it. Every time I buy fish at the store, I am subsidizing your recreation choices.