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SHRIMP TRADE CASE THREATENS U.S. EXPORTS
Washington, DC The CITAC/ASDA Shrimp Task Force announced
today that the
American Soybean Association (ASA) has joined the Shrimp Task Force
to
safeguard U.S. soy exports threatened by the shrimp trade case.
The ASA is
a membership-driven policy organization representing 25,000 soybean
farmers
across the United States.
U.S. soybean and soybean meal exports are an important source of
feed for
shrimp produced using modern farming, or aquaculture, techniques.
The
majority of shrimp producing countries purchase large quantities
of U.S.
soybeans and soybean meal to feed their farm-raised shrimp, helping
to make
soy products America¹s #1 agriculture export.
³About half of all our U.S. soy exports are purchased by shrimp
producing
countries,² said ASA President Ron Heck, a soybean producer
from Perry,
Iowa. ³ASA is primarily concerned about the potential of retaliatory
trade
restrictions being placed on U.S. soybean and soybean meal exports.
ASA is
joining the Shrimp Task Force to make sure the U.S. government fully
understands the ripple effect that would result from the imposition
of
duties on shrimp imports.²
Due to the availability of reasonably priced imports, which account
for
nearly 90% of all shrimp consumed in the U.S., shrimp has risen
to become
America¹s #1 seafood. The domestic shrimpers¹ trade case
was filed against
imported shrimp from Thailand, China, Vietnam, India, Ecuador, and
Brazil,
which account for about 75% percent of shrimp imports in the U.S.
market,
with a 2002 value of $2.4 billion.
³The decision by the American Soybean Association to join our
coalition
reveals just how far reaching the impact of dumping duties would
be,² said
Wally Stevens, Chairman of the Shrimp Task Force. ³American
exports and
American jobs are at stake here. We estimate that for every one
shrimp
producing job in the U.S., there are an additional 20 jobs on the
consuming
side of the industry that depend upon affordable imported shrimp.
Placing a
food tax on America¹s most popular seafood would benefit a
small group of
U.S. shrimpers at the expense of jobs in shrimp consuming industries,
and in
U.S. export industries as well.²
Soybeans are not the only U.S. exports directly threatened by the
shrimp
trade case. Tens of millions of dollars in brine shrimp exports
from the
U.S., primarily from western states such as Utah, are used as feed
for
shrimp farming. The brine shrimp exports could also be lost.
Due to the threat that duties pose to both consumers and to the
consuming
industries that serve them, the Consuming Industries Trade Action
Coalition
(CITAC) has formed an alliance with the American Seafood Distributors
Association (ASDA), bringing together concerned grocers, restaurants,
processors, distributors, business councils and U.S. exporters to
form the
CITAC/ASDA Shrimp Task Force. The goal of the Shrimp Task Force
is to
assure that the U.S. government considers all the facts in the case
fairly
and objectively, with a full understanding of the ramifications
of any
decision.
For more on this issue, visit www.citac.info/shrimp
or contact George Felcyn at
(202) 466-6210 or george.felcyn@pbnco.com.
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