Legislation launched to protect Vietnamese catfish imports

Wednesday, March 09, 2011, 04:00 (GMT + nine)

Senators John McCain and Tom Coburn have launched legislation to repeal duplicative federal regulations relating to the inspection and grading of Vietnamese catfish. The bill would annul a provision in the 2008 Farm Bill seeking to ban Vietnamese catfish imports and people of other likely trade partners.

Part 11016 of the Farm Bill, McCain informed President Barack Obama in a letter, is merely the latest work by members of Congress who are functioning toward the special interests of the catfish business in their property states. He cited the unsuccessful try of numerous such members who in 2002 experimented with to make it illegal to label Vietnamese pangasius as catfish in US to discourage American buyers from buying it.

“Vietnamese catfish continue to be popular with American shoppers because it’s more inexpensive and less costly to make than domestic catfish grown in aquaculture ponds,” McCain wrote. “Now these unique interests are relying on this newest Farm Bill rider to over regulate Vietnamese catfish by, ironically, deeming pangasius a catfish yet again.”

“Under the guise of food security, the 2008 Farm Bill directs the US Division of Agriculture’s (USDA) Meals Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) to inspect catfish like it does meat products or eggs, except that no other fish is below the regulatory thumb of the FSIS. Catfish is currently regulated by Foods and Drug Administration (FDA), which hasn’t reported any basic safety or wellness difficulties with the Vietnamese imports,” he explained.

McCain insisted that US producers are only hoping to raise barriers for Vietnamese pangasius farmers.

A current Government Accountability Workplace (GAO) report has denounced this FSIS programme as ‘duplicative’ and ‘high risk’ for ‘fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement,’ estimating that the USDA would spend about USD 30 million in to put into action the catfish inspection programme, he told.

“We’d be more fragmenting our federal food security method by getting catfish regulated twice by both USDA and FDA,” McCain stressed.

“Not only is the catfish provision in Section 11016 offensive to our concepts of totally free trade, it flagrantly disregards our Bilateral Trade Agreement and relationship with Vietnam. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation,” he concluded.

By Natalia Genuine
editorial@fis.com
www.fis.com