On February 1, 2010, the United States received from Vietnam a request for consultations pertaining to antidumping duties imposed by the United States pursuant to the final results issued by the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) in several administrative reviews of the antidumping duty order on imports of certain frozen and canned warmwater shrimp from Vietnam. Vietnam claimed that certain actions by DOC and U.S. Customs and Border Protection with respect to several administrative reviews and with respect to any ongoing or future administrative review or sunset review concerning this antidumping duty order, as well as various U.S. laws, regulations, administrative procedures, practices, and policies, both as such and as applied, are inconsistent with U.S. commitments and obligations under Articles I, II, VI:1 and VI:2 of the GATT 1994, Articles 1, 2.1, 2.4, 2.4.2, 6.8, 6.10, 9.1, 9.3, 9.4, 11.2, 11.3, 18.1 and 18.4 and Annex II of the Agreement on Implementation of Article VI of the GATT 1994 (the Antidumping Agreement), Article XVI:4 of the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, and Vietnam’s Protocol of Accession. Specifically, Vietnam complained that DOC used “zeroing” in the administrative reviews of the antidumping duty order on imports of shrimp, DOC failed to provide most Vietnamese respondents seeking a review an opportunity to demonstrate the absence of dumping by being permitted to participate in a review, and DOC required companies to demonstrate their independence from government control and applied an adverse facts available rate to companies that failed to do so in all reviews.
The United States and Vietnam held consultations on March 23, 2010.
On April 19, 2010, Vietnam requested that the DSB establish a panel. The DSB did so at its meeting on May 18, 2010. On July 26, 2010, the Director General composed the panel.
The panel circulated its report on July 11, 2011. The panel found that the use of “zeroing” in the second and third administrative reviews of the shrimp antidumping order was inconsistent with Article 2.4 of the Antidumping Agreement, and the use of “zeroing” in administrative reviews is inconsistent “as such” with Article 9.3 of the Antidumping Agreement and Article VI:2 of the GATT 1994. The panel also found that the use of antidumping margins determined using “zeroing” to calculate the “all others” rate in the second and third administrative reviews was inconsistent with Article 9.4 of the Antidumping Agreement. The panel found that the application to the Vietnam-wide entity of an antidumping margin different from the “all others” rate was also inconsistent with Article 9.4 of the Antidumping Agreement. The panel rejected Vietnam’s claim that Commerce’s determination to limit the number of individually examined respondents was inconsistent with various provisions of the Antidumping Agreement, and the Panel rejected Vietnam’s claims relating to “continued use,” finding those claims to be outside the panel’s terms of reference.
On September 2, 2011, the DSB adopted its recommendations and rulings as set out in the panel’s report. The United States and Vietnam agreed that the reasonable period of time for the United States to implement the recommendations and rulings of the DSB would end on July 2, 2012.
| Brief Date | Brief Description |
|---|---|
| 01/21/2011 | U.S. Comments on Vietnam’s Answers to the Second Set of Questions from the Panel |
| 01/14/2011 | U.S. Answers to the Second Set of Questions from the Panel |
| 12/21/2010 | Executive Summary of the U.S. Oral Statement at the Second Panel Meeting |
| 12/14/2010 | Oral Statement of the United States at the Second Panel Meeting |
| 11/23/2010 | Executive Summary of the Second Written Submission of the United States |
| 11/16/2010 | Second Written Submission of the United States |
| 11/03/2010 | U.S. Answers to the First Set of Questions from the Panel |
| 10/26/2010 | Executive Summary of the U.S. Opening Statement at the First Panel Meeting |
| 10/20/2010 | U.S. Opening Statement at the First Panel Meeting |
| 09/20/2010 | Executive Summary of the First Written Submission of the United States |
| 09/13/2010 | First Written Submission of the United States |
| 08/27/2010 | Summary of Vietnam’s First Written Submission |
