VISAKHAPATNAM: The Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI) sought support from the Central government to tide over the difficult situation that arose after the US government slapped 50 per cent tariff on seafood so that activities continue without interruption in the units and procurement proceeds unhindered and alternative markets found. Association president Pavan Kumar said it took 20 years to build the US market and exporters need at least one to one and half years to find new markets. He said the US levy of 50 per cent would make it impossible to supply goods to any market. Hence this move by the US imperils a market of around approx $3 billion for Indian seafood that exists in that country. The system of differential tariff adopted by the US, wherein various countries are offered different rates of tariffs, also places Indian seafood at a substantial disadvantage. The main competitors for Indian seafood are Ecuador, which has a tariff rate of 15 per cent, followed by Indonesia 19 per cent and Vietnam 20 per cent. “Thus, imports from these countries gain a huge “tariff advantage” over India while exporting seafood to the US,” Pavan Kumar told this correspondent in Visakhapatnam on Friday. He said the SEAI pledges to maintain high quality standards of export products by employing sustainable practices through the entire length of the supply chain and remains committed to providing remunerative prices to fishermen and fish farmers and all others working in the seafood export value chain. The organisation also reaffirms the commitment of its members to employ just and humane practices and eliminate the scourge of antibiotic contamination, he added. Pavan Kumar said 1,500 containers are in the waters on their way to the US and none of them would make it to the US before September 17 to get exempted from the new tariff. He said India exported $7.4 billion worth seafood including the shrimp grown in the farms in the last fiscal of which Andhra Pradesh had $2.5 billion share. AP farmers harvest four lakh tonnes of shrimps worth ₹30,000 crore every year, sources from aqua farmers association said.
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