Thai 'shrimp' leads Japan, India to sue US at WTO

BANGKOK, May 11 (TNA) - Japan and India have followed the trail blazed by Thailand by taking the US to the dispute settlement court of the World Trade Organisation for its anti-dumping measures.

Relatively small Thailand achieved success in challenging the US trade giant, and two larger Asian economies are following suit.

Thailand's lead, said Director-General Apiradi Tantraporn of the Ministry of Commerce's Trade Negotiations Department, led Japan and India to consult with the WTO on May 1 and 3 regarding the Thai case against
US anti-dumping measures for Thai shrimp. Thailand took issue with US practices and carried the case to the WTO's dispute settlement process on the grounds that the US measures violated international trade
agreement.

Thailand sought to meet with the US under the WTO dispute settlement framework on April 24 because the American authorities demanded that importers of Thai shrimp must post continuous bonds to the amount of the anti-dumping duties, on top of the cash deposit for anti-dumping duties that importers must already produce for each shipment.

Although the US claimed that the burden is upon the US importers and not on Thai exporters, Thailand argued that the measures in fact constitute disincentives, with the result that many American importers
have stopped buying from Thailand and taken their business to other countries, because they could not cope with the additional costs and paperwork.

The Thai government also complained to the WTO that the US trade officials apply "zeroing" formulas in calculating the anti-dumping tariffs, whereas the WTO has already ruled that such a calculation violates the WTO's anti-dumping charter.

Mrs. Apiradi said that under WTO dispute settlement procedures, the US must confer with Thailand to come up with a solution within 60 days. In the event of failure by both parties to reach an agreement, Thailand could ask the WTO to appoint a panel of experts to consider the case.

TNA
11/05/2006