Ecuador wins US shrimp subsidy case

The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has dropped countervailing duties on imports of shrimp from Ecuador, local media reported Friday. In a divided vote, the ITC ruled that the Coalition of Gulf Shrimp Industry, the complainant, failed to present a strong enough case that it suffered from cheap imports of frozen shrimp from Ecuador as well as four other nations. Local media quoted Nathalie Cely, Ecuador's ambassador to the United States, as saying "We won at ITC!" The U.S. Commerce Department imposed an anti-subsidy tariff of 13.5 percent on the imports of Ecuadorian shrimp in August following a complaint lodged by the Coalition of Gulf Shrimp Industry, which in December filed a lawsuit against the Ecuadorian shrimp for alleged unfair competition. This had led the Ecuadorian government to launch a campaign to show the United States that there were no subsidies for the shrimp sector. Shrimp is one of the South American country's main exports and the United States is the target market.