WTO Sets Up Panel To Investigate US Shrimp Duties

US - The World Trade Organization set up a panel Wednesday to investigate whether U.S. antidumping duties on shrimp imports from Ecuador are against international trade rules.

The U.S. imposed the duties of up to 4.48% in February 2005 because it said Ecuadorian exporters were selling shrimp on the U.S. market at below cost price.

But Ecuador argues that Washington had incorrectly calculated the duties because it had used a practice known as "zeroing" to calculate whether the shrimp was being dumped.

Previous WTO panels have found that zeroing leads to artificial and inflated margins of dumping, and thus higher duties. Ecuador argues that if the U.S. Department of Commerce had not used zeroing, it would not have concluded that the shrimp was being dumped on the U.S. market.

Source: The Business Online