The government said on Thursday that it will fight US trade panel's decision giving preliminary approval for imposition of anti-dumping duties on imports of shrimp from India.

"We will fight it out. We are all geared up to fight the case and industry has already hired lawyers for this," special secretary, ministry of commerce, S N Menon, told PTI.

Observing that New Delhi had a very strong case, Menon said India was mainly exporting "tiger shrimps" which are not found there and that too in unprocessed frozen form.

Expressing the same sentiment president of the Indian Seafood Exporters' Association Abraham Tharakan said: "We have a strong case against the US shrimpers. We are certain that we will win the case despite the initial setback."

In fact, 80 per cent of shrimps consumption in US is met through imports, Menon said adding imports of unprocessed Indian shrimps generated about one million jobs in the food processing industry there. "This move will affect their processing industry," he added.

The US International Trade Commission had given its preliminary approval for imposition of anti-dumping duties on shrimp imports from India.

The six-member quasi-judicial International Trade Commission said there was a "reasonable indication" that imported crustaceans from India and five other countries were allegedly being dumped into US at unfair prices and could harm the local industry.

The ruling will be sent to the Department of Commerce, which will take a final view and determine if imports were being sold at unfairly low prices in domestic markets as US shrimpers charge.

US imports of shrimp (excluding canned shrimp) in 2003 through October, according to the US Census Bureau, included 83 million pounds from India valued at $342 million.

Indian shrimpers slam US ruling

Indian seafood exporters have termed "discriminatory and unjust" the United States trade panel's decision to impose anti-dumping duties on billions of rupees of shrimp imports from India and five other countries.

Accusing India, Thailand, Vietnam, Ecuador, China and Brazil of flooding the US market with cheap shrimps, the Southern Shrimp Alliance in America had filed a request with the US International Trade Commission and the Department of Commerce.

The petition demanded to slap tariffs on the $ 2.4 billion worth shrimp imports to America.

On Wednesday, the Commission came out with a preliminary verdict to impose anti-dumping duties against these countries saying lower-priced shrimps have been hurting the US seafood industry. The verdict also cleared the way for the US Commerce Department to set preliminary duties to offset the alleged dumping by the six countries.

"We are deeply disappointed and upset by the verdict," Tharakan told rediff.com.

Saying that the Indian shrimp industry has not been resorting to dumping in the US, Tharakan said there are several stages before a final verdict comes on the subject. The association expects the final verdict around November this year.

The next step in the process of the anti-dumping suit is to prove whether there has been dumping, and at what level. As part of this process, the ITC would be selecting a few leading exporting companies from each country and detailed questionnaires would be sent to them.

Indian exporters who have been mobilising funds to face the anti-dumping suit said that they would fight the battle in the US till the case lasts. The Association has said that the total cost of fighting the legal defense in the US would be around $1.5 million and the Indian shrimp exporters would bear the cost.

The Association has already roped in Garvey Schubert Barer, a reputed law firm in the US, to fight the anti-dumping charges.

Jose Cyriac, chairman of the Marine Products Export Development Authority, India's apex government body on marine products, said that the Indian government would provide all help to the seafood exporters to fight the dumping suit. "The government is unhappy with the US verdict. But it is only a preliminary finding. We will help the Indian exporters fight the case in the US," Cyriac said.

The imposition of anti-dumping duty will more than double the price of Indian shrimp in the US markets and the imports from India are expected to trickle down rapidly.

The anti-dumping case against Indian shrimp exports would also badly affect the country's seafood processing industry, which generates some one million jobs.

Indian seafood exporters said that the anti-dumping has already started to considerably affect the shrimp exports to the US. Many of them believe if the anti-dumping case continues it would have a crippling effect on the Indian seafood industry.

A similar antidumping case was initiated against Indian leather goods in South Africa two years ago. Though the case was ultimately determined in India's favor, the South African market was lost following a temporary ban on Indian leather products.

The United States is India's second-largest shrimp buyer after Japan. Annual shrimp imports by the US are estimated to be over $3 billion and India exported shrimp worth $360 million last year.

Additional inputs from PTI