Saturday, January 22 2005 17:38 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The US has ordered a suo motu review of its anti-dumping duties on Indian shrimp imports in a bid to provide relief to the tsunami-hit fishermen in the country.

"Robert Zoellick (outgoing US Trade Representative) had called me to say that they were instituting a suo motu critical review of the anti-dumping duty on our shrimp," Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath told sources today (Jan 22, 2005).

Nath said he had requested Zoellick that anti-dumping duties should be relaxed for seafood exports from India as they were mainly from tsunami-hit areas and such a relief would help in the rehabilitation of poor fishermen.

The US had earlier said it would review anti-dumping duties on shrimp imports not only from India but also Thailand in the wake of tsunami disaster.

Earlier, the US International Trade Commission had affirmed that material injury had been caused to the US industry by the import of shrimp from six countries - India, Thailand, China, Vietnam, Ecuador and Brazil.

In view of the changed circumstances, it has now ordered a review of shrimp imports from India and Thailand.

India's marine exports were worth over $ 2 billion dollar annually and the US market accounted for a bulk of that.

However, the US shrimp industry is vehemently opposing the move.