US Shrimpers Still Carping

In a new skirmish over trade with Asia, the U.S. Commerce Department sided Tuesday with American shrimpers who charge that Chinese and Vietnamese shrimp farmers are dumping their shrimp, or selling it below cost, in the United States.

In its preliminary ruling, the Commerce Department's International Trade Administration found that the American shrimpers' argument had merit and recommended punitive duties of up to 112 percent on frozen and canned shrimp from China and Vietnam.

Before any duties can be imposed, however, the International Trade Commission, another U.S. government group, must make a final ruling in January.

The shrimp-fishing industry in eight Southern states, which filed the antidumping complaint against six countries in Asia and Latin America, cheered the decision.

''It's the first step on a long road to stabilize the domestic shrimp industry,'' said John Williams, who runs a shrimp-fishing operation in Tarpon Springs.

The other countries named in the complaint were Brazil, Ecuador, India and Thailand. The ITA is expected to issue a preliminary ruling this month on those complaints.

Tuesday's ruling ''reinforces what we have been saying all along, that these countries have been dumping their shrimp in the United States,'' Williams said.

Florida shrimpers have long maintained that cheap foreign imports are undercutting their ability to survive.

But the American Seafood Distributors Association, which represents importers and distributors of seafood, says the battle is anything but over.

''Our reaction is disappointment tempered by the realization that this is not a final decision,'' said its president, Wally Stevens.

The dumping duties against Vietnamese companies range from 12.11 to 93.13 percent. Against Chinese companies, the range is 7.67 to 112.81 percent.

The Southern Shrimp Alliance has charged that the cut-rate prices are making it impossible for the industry to stay in business and, at the same time, failing to lower the cost to consumers because of middlemen's big profits.

But domestic importers and distributors say U.S. shrimpers and farm-raised imports fill different niches.

The ruling is but the latest in a string of trade-related setbacks for China. The U.S. government has recommended antidumping duties on furniture imports and imposed safeguard measures against Chinese apparel, essentially limiting imports. And even U.S. sock manufacturers have filed a petition seeking protection against Chinese sock imports.

Eric Autor, vice president of the National Retail Association, also expressed disappointment over the ruling. Communist governments, he said, were singled out for different treatment.

''The size of the [dumping] margins indicates the extent to which the rules in the antidumping case are skewed against countries that aren't deemed by the Commerce Department to be market economies,'' Autor said.

Greg Mastel, an international trade economist at Miller & Chevalier in Washington, believes that one reason that so many petitions are being filed against China is its success as a massive exporter to the United States.

''It's partly because they have been successful in bringing a whole lot'' of goods, he said. U.S. consumers and certain industries ``think that China is a big problem.''