Sec. 3. Sense of Congress on the need to phase-in a duty increase for shrimp from India
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Congress makes the following findings: The United States has a grand tradition of shrimp production, but domestic producers are forced to compete in a wide open market while exports from India are heavily subsidized and protected. According to the National Trade Estimate in 2023, India’s bound tariff rates on agricultural products are among the highest in the world, averaging 113.1 percent and ranging as high as 300.0 percent. . India’s basic duty on shrimp is 30 percent. The National Trade Estimate also records that since 2018, India has applied an additional 10 percent social welfare surcharge on imports, assessed on the value of its existing high duties, which includes shrimp.
Wild-caught and farm-raised shrimp from the United States now account for less than 10 percent of shrimp consumption in the United States. Shrimp production overseas is able to undercut the costs of shrimp produced in the United States due to poor worker and environmental protections. Shrimp imports from India consist almost entirely of farm-raised aquaculture shrimp, as the importation of wild-caught shrimp from India remains prohibited due to the failure of Indian fisheries to meet the certification requirements under section 609(b)(2) of the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1990 ( Public Law 101–162 ; 16 U.S.C. 1537 note).
According to Seafood Watch, India’s farmed shrimp industry has expanded rapidly since 2014 and faces challenges with disease outbreaks, health management, farm registration, and data availability. . The United States has taken a lax approach to inspecting imported shrimp, with only 0.1 percent of shipments being inspected for unsafe drug residues. Despite that low inspection rate, every year, shipments of shrimp from India are refused due to testing by the Food and Drug Administration for banned antibiotics.
During the 20-year period preceding the date of the enactment of this Act, shrimp producers in the United States have paid a tremendous cost to litigate trade remedy laws to defend against predatory pricing and illegal subsidies from Indian shrimp imports. The Dispute Settlement Body of the World Trade Organization has limited the effectiveness of trade remedy laws of the United States in relation to shrimp imports from India and as a result, tens of millions of dollars in antidumping duties go uncollected by U.S.
Customs and Border Protection. The United States rate of duty for warm-water shrimp, set under subheadings 0306.17, 1605.21, and 1605.29 of the HTS, is set to free in both the column 1 and column 2 rate of duty columns, meaning there is no duty owed for the entire world absent a trade remedy order. The United States rate of duty for preserved or frozen shrimp, in a product containing fish meat or prepared meals, is 5 percent, but waived under the Generalized System of Preferences under title V of the Trade Act of 1974 ( 19 U.S.C. 2461 et seq. ) and all relevant United States free trade agreements under the column 1 special rate of duty column of the HTS.
Maintaining a 0 percent tariff on shrimp under both column 1 and column 2 of the HTS negates any benefits, including increased environmental and worker rights protections, stemming from preferential tariff programs or free trade agreements. India maintains a base customs duty for shrimp of 30 percent, before applying an additional 10 percent social welfare surcharge – special duty. It is the sense of Congress that phasing in an increased duty for shrimp originating from India is prudent and necessary to safeguard sustainable harvesting of shrimp in the United States and from free trade agreement partners of the United States, and would enhance the trade and development goals of the tariff preference programs of the United States.
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- Pub. L. 101-162
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Sec. 3
Sense of Congress on the need to phase-in a duty increase for shrimp from India
Pub. L.Pub. L. 101-162
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