Indonesian Shrimp Exporters Challenge ITC's Finding of 'Significant Underselling' of Imports
The International Trade Commission erred in finding "significant underselling" was the basis on which to determine that imports of frozen warmwater shrimp caused domestic industry harm and in finding the existence of only one domestic like product, trade group Indonesian Fishery Producers Processing and Marketing Association argued in a Feb. 26 complaint at the Court of International Trade (Indonesia Fishery Producers Processing and Marketing Association v. United States, CIT # 25-00035).
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The association joins a growing number of exporters challenging the commission's injury finding on shrimp from Indonesia, Ecuador, India and Vietnam (see 2502240053, 2502250018 and 2502190026).
The association said the ITC committed two errors in finding significant underselling by frozen shrimp imports, including that the commission considered market share changes for both fresh and frozen shrimp even though U.S. production of frozen shrimp was "more comparable to" imports of frozen shrimp. The second error is that the ITC "failed to consider market share over the full" investigation period, "including interim 2024."
From 2021 to the interim 2024 period, U.S. frozen shrimp processors "lost only .3 percent of market share," the brief said. As a result, U.S. processors "largely maintained their market share" despite "declining prices and declining apparent U.S. consumption," the brief said. The commission failed to back its finding that underselling was "significant when there was such a small shift in market share." The brief said this finding is "inconsistent with the plain language of the statute."
The association also argued that the ITC didn't give a "reasoned basis" for its conclusions on the "interchangeability" of wild-caught shrimp, which is produced by the U.S. shrimp sellers, and farm-raised shrimp, which is imported into the U.S. The complaint said "questionnaire data and anecdotal evidence on the record clearly established that there is separate and distinct demand for farm-raised and wild-caught shrimp, based on consumer preferences."
Despite the evidence, the commission only relied on the petitioner's anecdotal evidence to back its claim that the "production method does not heavily impact purchasing decisions," the brief said.
The ITC also erred in failing to "adopt certain comments on the draft questionnaires, proposed by respondents," the brief said. The association said it asked the commission to "collect data on other factors that might have affected the domestic industry’s performance," yet no such review was conducted. Without this information, "the Commission wrongly attributed any injury caused by other factors to subject imports," the brief said.