Will Jobs Be Impacted?

Shrimp Case Could Seriously Hurt U.S. Jobs

The Consuming Industries Trade Action Coalition (CITAC)/American Seafood Distributors Association (ASDA) Shrimp Task Force opposes the shrimp antidumping petitions because they will do nothing to help the domestic shrimp industry. Instead, the petitions will limit American consumers' access to reasonably priced shrimp and damage shrimp consuming industries. This means that efforts to “protect” the domestic shrimp industry from global competition and “save” jobs will have the “unintended consequence” of hurting far more American jobs in the consuming sector. U.S. trade remedy laws were never intended to hurt American workers.

Imported shrimp accounts for almost 90% of a rapidly-growing American shrimp market. Imports are important because U.S. shrimp production is limited by nature: U.S. fishermen catch shrimp in open waters using boats and nets rather than raising it on aquaculture farms. Open water "shrimping" is less efficient, less predictable, and far more expensive than aquaculture, used by countries that export shrimp to the United States.

The antidumping petitions propose to tax the vast majority of American shrimp imports. Imports from the six targeted countries in the trade case account for approximately 72% percent of U.S. shrimp imports.