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US’s redefinition of catfish – a mistake
The President of the US National Fisheries Institute (NFI), John Connelly, said on May 22 that "It would be a mistake for the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to expand the definition of catfish to include Tra and Basa (or Vietnamese pangasius)".
In an interview given to Washington-based Vietnam News Agency correspondent, the NFI President said that the move would cause harms to both countries.
According to Connelly, the US would suffer the loss in many ways, first from trade perspective. He said if Vietnam’s pangasius production is limited that would reduce the US’s export of soya-bean, an important product for pangasius production, to Vietnam.
Secondly, the ban on the product’s coming to US as the result of USDA’s decision would impact on people in Idaho, Massachusetts, and Florida, which are important states of the US, because the recruitment for the product processing shrinks, he said.
The ban would also destroy opportunities of US families to enjoy the Vietnamese products, Connelly added.
Connelly asserted that Tra and Basa of Vietnam are safe and healthy products, adding that trade is important in the US-Vietnam relationship and the increase in import of these products would, in return, help boost US’s exports to Vietnam.
He also said that at the time when President Barack Obama is trying to reshape and reenergise as well as renew American leadership abroad, to take steps that damage the relationship with developing countries, seems to be a faulty and wrong part for the president in the administration to take.
He stressed that in 2002, the US Congress did not classify Vietnamese Tra and Basa as catfish. So around seven years later, the redefinition that aims to prevent the products coming in from Vietnam to compete against the domestic catfish is problematic and unfair to American consumers, unfair to soya-bean farmers exporting their product to Vietnam, and unfair to Tra and Basa raisers and processors in Vietnam.
VietNamNet, vietnamnews
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