US removes tariff on Norwegian salmon
Norwegian officials have made some concerted efforts to have the punitive duty removed, and their latest effort paid off. The case for keeping the duty has mostly been made by salmon farmers on the East Coast, with Washington farmers seemingly being less than vocally interested in keeping the tariff. The impact of this type of product from Norway is likely to be of little competition to West Coast farmers.
“This is first and foremost a principally important decision for Norwegian export interests in the long term”, said Norway’s Minister of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs, Ms. Lisbeth Berg-Hansen, herself coming from a family of fish farmers.
The Norwegian government issued the following statement this morning:
The U.S. International Trade Commission has today decided to remove the over 20-year-old anti-dumping duties on Norwegian salmon in the United States. Norwegian authorities and the salmon industry thus succeeded in the review of the actions that took place in 2011. -“This case has fundamentally important industrial and trade policy issues that have been important for us to get cleaned up. The salmon industry is highly export oriented and dependent on reliable and predictable trading conditions. This is therefore an important decision”, says Minister of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs Lisbeth Berg-Hansen.
The USA introduced anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures against imports of whole fresh salmon from Norway in 1991. WTO agreement requires the U.S. government to undertake a review every five years of whether the punitive duty will be continued. Such a review was initiated in January 2011, and both the Norwegian salmon industry, represented by the FHL and the NSL and the Norwegian government registered as parties to the case.
