The Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA), a Tarpon Springs, Florida, U.S.A.-based nonprofit representing the U.S. domestic shrimp industry’s interests, has praised the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) for its recent decision to maintain Vietnam's designation as a non-market economy.
Following nearly a year of review, the DOC announced on 2 August it will continue to classify Vietnam as a non-market economy, meaning that products exported from Vietnam to the U.S. will continue to face different treatment in antidumping and countervailing investigations, rather than solely considering actual production costs in Vietnam.
“The U.S. commercial shrimp fishery is collapsing, and while one part of the DOC tells fishermen that they won’t consider whether imports have caused a fishery disaster, another part of that agency spent almost a year on the Vietnamese Communist Party’s claim that they operate a market economy,” SSA Executive Director John Williams said. “While we cannot make sense of why this was ever an issue, we are, nevertheless, grateful that the DOC came to the right conclusion.”
In response to the DOC’s announcement, Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade said it would review the DOC’s arguments and plans to submit a renewed request for Vietnam to be recognized as a market economy.
On 3 August, Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ spokesperson Pham Thu Hang also said she was disappointed with the DOC’s decision, but affirmed that relevant Vietnamese agencies will continue to collaborate closely with U.S. partners to maintain strong bilateral relations.
The SSA, along with other domestic industry groups, has vehemently opposed continued requests from Vietnam to become a market economy. U.S. senators have expressed similar sentiments, urging the DOC not to grant market economy status to Vietnam in order to protect the interests of U.S. industries.
In a letter dated 25 July, John Boozman and Tom Cotton, U.S. senators from the state of Arkansas, said granting market economy status to Vietnam could …
