Landrieu Tells ITC to Support U.S. Shrimp Industry, Fight Unfair Imports
Press Release
U.S. Senator Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., today continued to express her support for the U.S. shrimp industry and its efforts to gain relief from massively subsidized shrimp imports from China, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. In 2012, these countries exported more than 883 million pounds of shrimp to the U.S. worth nearly $3.6 billion dollars and accounting for more than three-quarters of the domestic market overall. U.S. shrimp producers are struggling to survive this flood of artificially low-priced imported shrimp.
Sen. Landrieu submitted testimony to a hearing today by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) on whether these imports are being illegally subsidized by foreign governments. The commission will vote on September 19th to decide whether to impose countervailing duties. Last week, Sen. Landrieu joined five of her Senate colleagues in sending a bipartisan letter to the ITC supporting the imposition of these duties.
"Today, we have the opportunity to throw a life jacket to our American shrimp industry which may otherwise drown. To impose countervailing duties on these seven countries' shrimp imports is to level the playing field, to support free and fair market conditions, and to provide the U.S. shrimp industry with a chance to once again flourish," Sen. Landrieu wrote in her testimony. "If we don't stop unfair import competition, we will end up driving hard-working entrepreneurs out of this business and depriving one of America's cherished cultures of an industry that has flourished for generations."
"On behalf of the members of the domestic shrimp industry from Louisiana, we thank Senator Landrieu for her strong support of our trade case and efforts to level the playing field against unfair competition. She is always willing to help the Louisiana and Gulf shrimp communities and we sincerely appreciate it," Edward T. Hayes, Gulf Counsel for the Coalition of Gulf Shrimp Industries said.
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