Fishing News
Catfish at center of U.S.-Vietnamese trade battle
By Eric Palmer, [email protected]
Decades after fighting a war for the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese, the victors have become such effective economic competitors that they've sparked a trade war with the United States over catfish.
The Bush administration -- seeming advocate of free trade -- is trying to protect the domestic fish industry from a flood of low-cost Vietnamese fish. The federal government has vowed to support the domestic industry by spending $6 million buying its catfish for the school lunch program. Moreover, the government is forcing the whiskered Vietnamese fish to be labeled "basa."
The catfight over catfish is the latest sign of the U.S. government taking steps to shield U.S. companies from cheaper imports. In recent months, Europe and Asia have run into the political strength of the U.S. steel industry, and Canada got spanked by the U.S. lumber lobby.
This dispute involves Vietnamese catfish, or a product that isn't exactly a catfish, depending on your point of view. The case illustrates how thorny "free trade, fair trade" issues can get when they threaten a domestic industry.
Despite the objections of Vietnam, Congress in December approved a temporary ban on any whiskered fish from Vietnam being labeled catfish. The ban was slipped in as an amendment to an appropriations bill for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Only North American catfish meet the new regulation.
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