Bangladesh and over 50 other, countries are likely to face a.ban on shrimp export to the US markets in . May this year.

The ban may follow a recent US court decision in favour of protecting the endangered turtles worldwide.

Some of the countries affected, meanwhile, have threatened to challenge- the embargo in the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The Clinton administration is deciding now whether to appeal the decision and how to administer the embargo while the State Department has drawn up a preliminary list of potential embargo countries, according to USIS in Dhaka.

At issue is a provision of the Endangered Species Act

prohibiting the United States to import shrimp from any country that lacks a programme like one requiring US trawlers to employ turtle-ex* truder devices (TEDs). which allow turtles caught up in shrimp nets to escape.

By May 1 every year the State Department certifies countries that use effective TEDs programmes and bans shrimp from uncertified countries.

The department had been interpreting the law narrowly to cover only countries in the Gulf of Mexico. Caribbean and western Atlantic, areas where US warm-water shrimp trawlers operate and adjacent areas where the turtles migrate.

But the environmental organisation Earth Island Insti-

tute won a case in the US Court of International Trade on December 29 overturning that narrow interpretation.

As a result of the Court decision. the State Department will apply, the law to trawleas in possibly more, than 50 countries and territories that supply warm-water shrimp to the US market. The list of countries is subject to change before the May 1 embargo deadline, a State. Department official said.

Unlikely to be affected are imports of cold-water shrimp from places like Iceland and Norway, where turtles are absent. US trawlers in the cold waters off New England. Washington and Alaska are not required to use TEDS.

Also unaffected are ini|>ort6 of shrimp raised by aquaculture — that is. on farms rather than tn the wilcf

Richard Gutting, vice president of the National Fisheries Institute, said the countries likely to be affected most high-volume exporters China. India. Thailand and some other countries around the Pacific Rim.

Moreover, a number of countries previously certified, like Mexico, face new requirements for their trawlers operating in the pacific, which are now covered by the law for the first time.

Less affected would be smaller suppliers in the European Union and Japan, but they are the ones, with Malaysia, already threatening a WTO challenge. Gutting said The most damaging retaliation could come from Japan, which buys 60 70 per cent of all US seafood exports, he said

The National Fisheries In stitute. a US sea food-industry trade association, predicts an

expanded embargo will cost sales valued at 1.000 million dollar a year.

A State Department official said no appeal ruling was expected before the May 1 em I >argo deadline:

They could have filed quickly and asked for an expedited appeal and gone through the ... process potentially before May." said Todd Steiner, director of Earth Island Institutes Sea Turtle Restoration Project in San Francisco.

I doubt that knv judge, after they waited until the last minute, would grant a stay." or delay, of the embargo now. he said

Steiner was eager for a WTO challenge to the embargo, he said to test the administrations resolve that free trade not undermine US environmental law

He predicted the wide application of the TEDs law will save hundreds of thousands of turtles a vear, more than I0O0UO alone in the Pacific off Mexico and Central Amer