Vietnamese Embassy describes DOC's shrimp ruling as unfair


07/08/2004 -- 11:29(GMT+7)

Washington (VNA) - The Vietnamese Embassy in the US has affirmed that the US Department of Commerce (DOC)'s preliminary ruling that Viet Nam has dumped shrimp on the US market was not in line with the law on free and fair trade and that any import duty imposed on Vietnamese shrimp is irrational.

Responding to US media and US-based foreign news agencies, the spokesperson for the Vietnamese Embassy, Bach Ngoc Chien, emphasised that Vietnamese companies have not dumped shrimp on the US market.

Chien said the DOC's ruling would adversely affect the lives of millions of Vietnamese shrimp raisers, Amerian consumers as well as the Viet Nam-US trade ties.

In regard to the DOC's preliminary ruling, the Washington Post on Tuesday quoted economists as saying that the US's anti-dumping law, and the way the DOC has enacted this law provided a disguise for protectionist policies.

According to the newspaper, Viet Nam's shrimp export volume to the US market which is subject to a duty of 93.13 percent accounts for more than 20 percent of Viet Nam's total shrimp exports to this market.