CatfishWarUnitedStatesv.Vietnam.docVIP

Anbinh Phan, Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy and International Affairs The New “Catfish” War: United States v. Vietnam Implications of US Trade Policy in Vietnam Executive Summary Trade wars between the United States and Vietnam accelerate as catfish farmers in the Southern region of the US lose sizeable business to catfish farmers in Vietnam. In response, food-labeling practices now differentiate “Made in Vietnam” catfish. US farmers run ads and claim that the fish grown in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam are raised under unsanitary conditions and are possibly contaminated with a chemical agent used during the Vietnam War: Agent Orange. In addition, the US farmers contend that the Vietnamese state subsidizes its farmers, thereby lowering the prices of catfish enabling “dumping” in the US market and decreasing profits for thousands of Mississippi farmers. In accordance with the anti-dumping suit filed on June 28, 2001, by the United States Association of Catfish Farmers of America (CFA), a group representing the Mississippi Delta Farmers, to the International Trade Committee and the US Department of Commerce against the frozen catfish from Vietnam; and in response to the 2001 US Senate law forcing Vietnamese exporters to label their catfish- ‘Tra’ or ‘Basa’- a similar subspecies, the Vietnamese government is crying fowl against American trade policy. Where The Trade War Begins: Entry Into The US Catfish Market After two decades, the US embargo to Vietnam was lifted in 1995. On December 10, 2001, the United States and Vietnam signed a bilateral trade agreement (BTA) that formalized a preferential trading status. Since the BTA was enacted, trade from both sides increased and punitive tariffs have been slashed. Today, Vietnam exports nearly $1.6 billion worth of shoes, textiles, shrimp, catfish and other commodities to the United States and the United States exports $500 million in cotton, fertilizer and air pumps (Chapman). In the United States catfish has