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A US trade panel voted Wednesday to maintain punitive tariffs on shrimp from Thailand and India, rejecting an effort to ease the duties in the wake of the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

The quasi-judicial US International Trade Commission said in a statement that it "opposes revocation of the existing anti-dumping duty orders" on imports of frozen shrimp and prawns from India and Thailand.

The commission, in a 6-0 ruling, said that "revoking the existing orders would be likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of material injury within a reasonably foreseeable time."

The panel in April voted to review the case against India and Thailand in light of the tsunami. The same panel in January ruled that those two nations along with China, Vietnam, Brazil and Ecuador were dumping shrimp at unfair prices, clearing the way for punitive tariffs of about 17 percent, on average.

The Southern Shrimp Alliance, representing US producers in the Gulf of Mexico, welcomed the decision.

"The determination confirms that antidumping duties will remain in effect until companies in India and Thailand and four other countries engage in fair trade and stop harmful pricing practices," the group said.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2005


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