On July 18, 2016, the International Trade Administration, Department of Commerce, announced that the United States and Vietnam signed an agreement to resolve two longstanding WTO disputes over imports of Vietnamese shrimp to the United States. The agreement also provides a framework for the settlement of certain U.S. court litigation, as well as the resolution of certain outstanding duty claims covering various administrative reviews of the warmwater shrimp antidumping duty order. Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Barbara Weisel, Assistant Secretary of
Commerce for Enforcement and Compliance Paul Piquado, and Vietnam’s Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Quoc Khanh signed the agreement.
The agreement resolves two outstanding WTO disputes brought by Vietnam:United States – Anti-dumping Measures on Certain Shrimp from Viet Nam(DS404) and United States – Anti-dumping Measures on Certain Shrimp from Viet Nam (DS429).
Pursuant to the agreement, Commerce revisited prior administrative determinations to bring those decisions into compliance with the WTO dispute findings. As a result, a Vietnamese exporter of frozen warmwater shrimp – Minh Phu Group – will no longer be subject to the antidumping duty order. In addition, certain domestic litigation will be resolved and duty deposits will be refunded to the Minh Phu Group. The antidumping duty order will remain in place for all other exporters of warmwater shrimp from Vietnam.
