|
Ambassador questions US draft rules to re-name Vietnamese tra, basa fish
Vietnam's Ambassador to the US, Le Cong Phung, has sent letters to nearly 140 US congressmen asking them to look into the US Agriculture Department's draft rules relating to Vietnam’s pangasius (“tra” and “basa”) fish.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is required under the US Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 (P.L. 110-246) to promulgate regulations to govern the inspection of "catfish" by the USDA.
The USDA is in the final stages of drafting new regulations to create a new definition of "catfish" and is considering to include Vietnamese tra and basa fish in this definition.
The Ambassador drew the US congressmen’s attention to the fact that in 2002 the US Congress prevented Vietnam from calling tra and basa as "catfish".
According to the diplomat, the P.L. 110-246, which the US government said would only serve to raise safety of foods imported into the US , was described by the public as creation of new barriers to trade in goods and services.
He said if the USDA decides to include "tra" and "basa" in its definition of "catfish", it would not only call into question the US WTO’s commitments but also endanger the opportunity for normal employment of more than 1 million farmers and workers in Vietnam as well as significantly impact the bilateral relations between Vietnam and the United States.
The Vietnamese Ambassador therefore urged US congressmen to look into the matter and asked the USDA not to put Vietnamese pangasius into the definition of "catfish".
vietnamplus
|
