Shrimpers, Crawfish Interests Ask USTR to Start Section 301 Investigation on Banned Drugs Abroad
Domestic shrimpers, crawfish harvesters and the Oregon Trawl Commission asked the U.S. trade representative to open a Section 301 investigation to address the unfair trade practice of using "banned veterinary drugs in farm-raised seafood production from China, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam" for seafood exported to the U.S.
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They said that using banned antibiotics allows farmed shrimp in those countries to survive and grow faster, and that when one country does so, others are encouraged to do so, so that their seafood is price competitive. American farmed shrimp, which cannot use these drugs, cost more, and therefore has lost most of the market.
The groups argued that Vietnam and India, which provide 48% of imported shrimp, accounted for 63% of entry refusals when the FDA found veterinary drugs in the samples.