Trade Groups Say Seafood Task Force Export Strategy Should Also Focus on Imports
An interagency seafood trade task force focused on market access for U.S. exports should also turn its attention to imports, which have surged while exports have remained flat over the past decade, the Southern Shrimp Alliance said in a July 29 news release. The trade group and others said so in comments submitted to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in response to a July 10 notice seeking input on the development of a national seafood export strategy by the Seafood Trade Task Force. Comments are due Aug. 1.
The “trade deficit in seafood has grown massively over the last decade, as the value of seafood imports has increased by $7.3 billion since 2010 while the value of our country’s exports of seafood has remained flat over the last decade,” the SSA said in its news release. “These data demonstrate that the single biggest growth market available for the U.S. commercial fishing industry is the U.S. domestic market.”
Some of this is due to the lower standards of U.S. regulators for seafood imports compared with other countries', the SSA said in its comments. The European Union and Japan, in contrast to the U.S., regularly test shipments of Indian shrimp, a major contributor to the deficit, for antibiotics. Indian seafood exports to those countries have remained flat over the past decade, while those to the U.S. have skyrocketed, the SSA said.
“As should be evident from the example of Indian shrimp, the FDA’s tolerance for unsafe seafood imports has incentivized countries with poor food safety controls to increase their export shipments while simultaneously undermining the efforts taken by other major seafood importing markets to improve food production in these nations,” the SSA said.
Other trade groups also focused on seafood imports in their comments to NOAA. “The American Shrimp Industry is on the brink of collapsing. We cannot compete with cheap imports that are filled with steroids, antibiotics and other chemicals that are being fed to our American citizens,” the Louisiana Shrimp Association said. “We do not think it is possible for the Task Force to develop a truly comprehensive interagency seafood trade strategy without also addressing U.S. seafood imports,” the Blue Water Fishermen’s Association said.
The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council focused on several areas where the U.S. could improve its seafood import policies. The U.S. must improve seafood traceability and country of origin labeling on restaurant menus and retail markets. It should halt any supply from illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fisheries, and stop transshipment. And the FDA should increase testing for banned chemical treatments, the council said, in a thread common to several of the comments submitted to NOAA.