The US International Trade Commission (ITC) on Wednesday voted to retain penalty tariffs that have been imposed on shrimp imports from India and Thailand.

The commission voted unanimously that the US industry would continue to be injured by imports of shrimp from India and Thailand if penalty tariffs were removed. The ITC's investigation came under a procedure known as "changed circumstances" which it had launched in last April.

Both India and Thailand were hit hard by the tsunami occurred at the end of last year which flooded shrimp farms, destroyed fishing boats and killed thousands of fishermen. The two Asian countries have said that the tariffs should be lifted to help producers hurt by the tsunami.

However, the effort to remove the penalty tariffs was strongly opposed by US shrimp farmers.

Source: Xinhua