The association does not agree with the DoC methods of calculating dumping duties on Vietnam’s shrimps, said VASEP, which stands for the Vietnam Association for Seafood Export and Processing, on Nov. 3.

On July 6 this year, the DoC said in a preliminary ruling that Vietnam sold shrimps to the American market at below market price, and ruled that Vietnamese shrimp exporters must face import duties with margins ranging from 12.11 to 93.13 per cent.

The margins are unfair as the DoC has not classified the imports according to the shrimp’s sizes to calculate the taxes, VASEP said.

For the margins, the DoC has determined that the prices of large-sized shrimps are equivalent to that of smaller-sized ones, VASEP complained. Such a decision has pushed up the dumping margins, it added.

The margins will drop significantly, even to zero per cent if the DoC calculates the margins based on the sizes of shrimps. This would benefit shrimp firms subject to separate tariffs, said Nguyen Van Kich, chairman of VASEP Shrimp Committee.

The DoC had decided that companies which successfully proved operating without government subsidies would be subject to separate tariffs ranging from 12.11 to 19.6 per cent. Meanwhile, others failing to prove its independence from the government would be subject to the country-wide rate of up to 93.13 per cent.

So far, 36 Vietnamese seafood exporters have requested separate tariffs from the DoC, but only 20 were approved, according to VASEP.