But some domestic shrimpers aren't happy about the U.S. Commerce Department's proposal, which would affect canned and frozen warmwater shrimp and prawns coming into the U.S. from Brazil, Ecuador, India and Thailand.
"I'm happy they found our efforts are justified, but I'm disappointed at the percentages," said Clay Cable, vice president of the S.C. Shrimpers Association.
Brazilian exporters faced the stiffest duties, ranging up to 68 percent of the wholesale price of the shritmp. Import duties for Indian exporters range from 4 percent to 27 percent, from 6 percent to 10 percent for Thai exporters and from 6 percent to 9 percent for Ecuadoreans.
"Anything will help," Cable said, "but that's not much."
Shrimpers had asked for tariffs of up to 349 percent for Brazil and from 57 percent to 166 percent for the other three countries.
James Jochum, assistant commerce secretary for import administration, said it was too early to say if the duties would have an "immediate benefit to the shrimpers." He said he hoped the shrimpers who pushed the case felt vindicated.
Eddie Gordon, president of the Southern Shrimp Alliance, had mixed feelings. The alliance is an eight-state group that includes South Carolina.
"We commend the Department of Commerce for imposing anti-dumping duties, but feel that in certain instances the duties underestimate the seriousness of the violations," Gordon said.
Barbara Hudson, owner of Benny Hudson Seafood on Hilton Head Island, said that while any tariff is helpful, such small tariffs won't do much to help the shrimpers.
"Six percent tariff, you might as well not even bother," Hudson said. She said the real hope for the industry rests in convincing consumers to request and buy local shrimp instead of imported ones.
All four countries have denied the dumping charges.
"The only thing I can say is that the gap between the allegations and the reality are significant," said Warren Connelly, a trade lawyer for Ecuador. "Clearly the allegations were vastly overblown, overstated."
Opponents of tariffs, who call them a "food tax," say duties could drive shrimp prices up 44 percent and do little to uplift a domestic industry unable to supply the country's demand for shrimp.
"Today's decision is, plain and simple, anti-U.S. jobs. Imposing a food tax on America's No. 1 seafood will hurt U.S. consumers, restaurants, grocery stores and other industries," said Wally Stevens, president and chief operating officer of seafood distributor Slade Gorton Co., and chairman of an industry task force opposing the tariffs.
Although the ruling was preliminary, it is expected to stand. The Commerce Department will make a final decision by the end of the year and the U.S. International Trade Commission will decide in February if imports have damaged the domestic industry, a finding it already has issued in a preliminary ruling.
The Commerce Department proposed tariffs about three weeks ago on China and Vietnam. Chinese tariffs ranged from almost 8 percent to 113 percent; Vietnam tariffs from 12 percent to 93 percent.
In all, the six countries provide about 75 percent of the shrimp Americans eat.
Southern shrimpers and processors filed the anti-dumping petition in December, alleging that their industry was on the brink of destruction because of a flood of cheap shrimp.
The Southern Shrimp Alliance has said dumping cut the value of the U.S. harvest by more than half between 2000 and 2002, from $1.25 billion to $560 million.