The US shrimp industry is warning that it will drown in a flood of cheap imports unless the Bush administration keeps anti-dumping duties in place on shrimp imports from Ecuador.
"The shrimpers will be forced to compete directly with unfair trade," Deborah Long, a spokeswoman for the Southern Shrimp Alliance, which represents shrimpers and processors from eight states, said on Monday.
The group is worried the Bush administration, in order to satisfy a ruling from the World Trade Organisation court, will lift anti-dumping duties for shrimp from Ecuador, the United States' second-largest supplier of the crustacean. The Commerce Department issued a finding last week on the issue.