| Prepare for jumbo shrimp prices Costs could soar as a result of U.S. tariffs on imported catches |
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Wednesday, July 7, 2004  |
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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." |
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