Seafood News - Industry Events - Seafood Market

The News & Observer    1/04/2005 16:39:42

Cain BurdeauCanada said Thursday it would slap a 15 percent surtax on American oysters in retaliation for an American trade measure the World Trade Organization has ruled illegal.

Besides oysters, the Canadian government will impose the 15 percent surtax on cigarettes and live swine from the United States. The European Union said it would impose similar duties on some American products on Thursday. The EU had threatened to place duties on American seafood, including oysters, but opted not to.

Mike Voisin, chairman of the Louisiana Oyster Task Force, estimated that Canada receives as much as 7 percent of the Gulf of Mexico's oyster harvest. East Coast oyster growers stand to be hurt the most because they are closer to the Canadian market.

About 750 million in-shell pounds of oysters are harvested in the United States a year, with about 500 million of that coming from the Gulf and the rest spread between the East and West coasts.

Canada and nations worldwide are protesting a U.S. trade measure known as the Byrd amendment, which the World Trade Organization deemed illegal in 2002.

The Byrd amendment allows American companies to keep the proceeds that Washington collects in antidumping disputes, which Canada and other countries complain unfairly enriches their rival U.S. firms.

In Louisiana, crawfish farmers benefit from the Byrd amendment, which is named for its principal sponsor Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va. The Bush administration has pushed Congress to repeal the law, but it enjoys solid support among lawmakers.

Southern shrimpers are hoping to reap the benefits of the amendment after winning tariffs on shrimp imports from six Asian and South American nations. Catfish farmers are also in line to get money under the amendment.

"For the last four years, Canada and a number of other countries have repeatedly urged the United States to repeal the Byrd amendment," Canadian Trade Minister Jim Peterson said in a statement. "Retaliation is not our preferred option, but it is a necessary action. International trade rules must be respected."

The Canadian sanctions, which also cover certain types of fish, are to take effect May 1. The retaliatory surtax will amount to $11.6 million this year.

Richard Mills, a spokesman for the U.S. Trade Representative, called Canada's decision disappointing and said the U.S. was working on complying with the WTO decision.

"It's important to remember that the WTO decision in the dispute does not affect our underlying trade laws," he said in a statement.

Last November, the WTO gave Canada and the other co-complainants the authority to retaliate. The other countries involved include Mexico, Japan, India and Brazil.

The Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade said on its Web site that the Canadian government targeted cigarettes, oysters and live swine because they are "products which originate from U.S. states whose congressional representatives support the Byrd Amendment."

Richard Gutting, an international trade attorney who has worked on oyster-related issues, said it appears that this might be just the "first wave" of sanctions.