October 26, 2010

US-China trade rivalry shifts to catfish

The simmering trade war between the US and China has shifted to the catfish sector, as American farmers claim that cheap, substandard catfish imported from China is undermining their US$4 billion domestic business.

The battle over the bottom-feeding fish is giving lobbyists a new populist front in the campaign to cap trade surpluses with China.

Two groups, Catfish Farmers of America (CFA) and the Catfish Institute, are claiming that Chinese and Vietnamese catfish fillets are tainted with pollutants and antibiotics. The institute is calling for country of origin labels on catfish, and the farmers' body wants the US government to inspect all imports.

With 13,000 direct employees and US$4 billion in annual revenues, the industry, centred in Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana and Alabama, has the muscle to take its grievances to the airwaves. A commercial running on the CNN and Fox television networks asks provocatively, "Did you know that only 2% of imported seafood is inspected?"

A second ad shows a man disguised as a Chinese catfish making kung-fu moves on unsuspecting housewives and knocking over a dinner table.

"The White House has had more than two years to enforce a law that could provide important food safety protections for American consumers," Joey Lowery, president of the CFA, said.

US catfish farmers may be able to count on residual public sympathy extended to shrimp farmers in the Gulf of Mexico affected by the BP oil spill.

But its aggressive tactics may end up backfiring, warns the industry journal, Seafood Source. It said of the CFA's ads, "[A] faux food safety scare is the crown jewel in a manipulative operation filled with destructive tactics that will cause collateral damage to many parts of the seafood community."