Congressman Clay Higgins (R-LA) delivered an official letter to President Trump, requesting tariffs and increased trade enforcement for seafood imports from China, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam.
“Domestic shrimpers, fishermen, and crawfish producers in Louisiana and across the country face significant challenges competing against foreign seafood industries that are heavily subsidized and engage in illegal dumping into the United States,” Congressman Higgins wrote. “These unrighteous trade practices artificially drive down prices, disrupt fair market conditions, and threaten the livelihoods of hardworking American seafood producers. Without strong and consistent intervention, our seafood industry will remain vulnerable to these illegal trade tactics that erode the competitive market.
The letter continues, “I respectfully urge your administration to use all available enforcement tools, such as imposing antidumping and countervailing duties (AD/CVD), implementing stricter testing protocols, and taking decisive actions, including levying tariffs of up to 100% or destroying shipments that fail to meet U.S. health standards, to ensure a level playing field for American producers. Implementing these measures will protect the competitiveness and integrity of our domestic market and help the economy and culture of our coastal communities.”
Further issues in the Gulf
Southern states are struggling with false advertisements in restaurants serving foreign shrimp but advertising it as locally caught. The Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA) has been on top of this issue and getting very involved in supporting commercial shrimpers in the Gulf and South Atlantic.
According to Deborah Long, the SSA spokesperson, state legislatures are also writing new laws and getting serious about enforcement under new guidance from the Federal Trade Commission. The objective is to reduce seafood fraud, which will enable U.S. fishermen to receive premium prices for a superior product. “Another priority issue for shrimpers is to curb U.S. taxpayer funding of foreign shrimp aquaculture through institutions like the World Bank, which creates oversupply."
Read the full letter to President Trump here.
