The US Department of Commerce (DoC) has decided to increase anti-dumping duties on tra fish imported from Vietnam by an additional 0.52 to 1.29 USD per kilo, said the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP).

Association Secretary Truong Dinh Hoe said the tax hike was made after the US checked errors in the calculation of the previous tax, saying that the increase was consistent with the calculated data.

In March, the US imposed a high tax rate of 0.77 USD per kilo on Vietnamese tra fish. It chose Indonesia as the sole benchmark country to calculate the anti-dumping rate, VASEP said.

On a brighter note, Japan , one of the leading importers of Vietnamese seafood, has lifted a regulation that imported Vietnamese shrimps must be tested for trifluralin, a type of antibiotic, it said.

The regulation has been applied to all kinds of shrimps imported from Vietnam since October 2010.

The ban led to a close watch on the industry – from shrimp breeding to final processing – by Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

However, experts believe Vietnam is heading in the right direction in controlling seafood quality.

To push up the export turnover of seafood to the Japanese market, Deputy Director of the Department of Fisheries Nguyen Huy Dien said localities need to further focus on preventing shrimp diseases.

In addition, Dien said it was also necessary to pass on shrimp raising methods that ensure low Ethoxyquin content, an anti-oxidant substance popularly used in preserving aquatic feed.

In the first four months of this year, Japan imported shrimp worth more than 168 million USD from Vietnam, an increase of 2.4 percent compared with the same period last year.-VNA