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1 posted on 09/09/2005 5:24:06 AM PDT by OESY
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To: OESY

The counter to this point is do we want to put these industries out of business to save a $ now.


2 posted on 09/09/2005 5:38:21 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Seeking the truth here folks.)
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To: OESY
Here's an interesting section from a January Cato Institute article about shrimp:

Normally, proceeds from tariffs on imported goods go to the U.S. treasury. Not this time. A law passed in 2000 allows U.S. industries that win anti-dumping suits to keep the profits from tariffs imposed on foreign competitors. It's a called "double compensation," and it has been prohibited by the World Trade Organization. No matter, Congress has decided to ignore the WTO and reward domestic producers, anyway. Which means that the domestic shrimping industry (a) was permitted to pay for an anti-dumping lawsuit with U.S. tax dollars, (b) won a huge tariff on foreign shrimp which will result in higher shrimp prices for U.S. consumers, and (c) will get all of the revenue generated by those tariffs.

As if this weren't enough, as it turns out, many of those shrimp farms in China and Vietnam primarily feed their shrimp soybean meal. And almost all of that soybean meal is imported from U.S. soybean farmers. Both China and Vietnam are now threatening retaliatory measures against the U.S. soybean industry. The other countries hit by the US tariffs may follow suit. China alone imported about $2.2 billion in soybeans from the U.S. last year, twice what it imported the year before. And a group representing nine trade groups in Thailand has threatened to ban all U.S. soybean imports in retaliation for the shrimp tariffs. Just this month, the American Soybean Association wrote a letter to Commerce Secretary Don Evans outlining the disastrous impact the shrimp tariffs could have on soybean farmers.

The Southern Shrimp Alliance boasts on its website that U.S. shrimp employs some 70,000 workers whose jobs would have fallen into jeopardy had the Commerce Department not forced U.S. consumers to subsidize the industry. But when that same industry asks the federal government to expand the immigrant visa program so that it can hire cheaper foreign labor, it becomes clear that the US shrimping industry's commitment to the American worker is about as reliable as its commitment to free trade - more opportunistic, really, than principled.

Big Shrimp: A Protectionist Mess. [Free Republic]
4 posted on 09/09/2005 5:50:24 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: OESY

Katrina may be the end of the domestic shrimp industry. They were already pretty battered.


10 posted on 09/09/2005 7:15:08 AM PDT by George W. Bush
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