Vietnam catfish to have new names in U.S.
HANOI - The Ministry of Fisheries has officially demanded that the
US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) give Vietnam at least six month's time to
change products that have been exported as catfish.
Deputy Fisheries Minister Nguyen Thi Hong Minh on Jan. 4 told Vietnam News
Agency that it was an urgent measure being taken to resolve the current dispute that is
hindering Viet Nam-US trade in fish and fish products.
Vietnam has also asked the FDA to accept three new commercial names for
Vietnamese catfish - Hypo Basa, Sutchi Basa, and Trasa - after the six-month interval,
said Minh, who is also president of the VietnamAssociation of Seafood Exporters and
Processors.
The ministry's proposal was made to address the controversy regarding the US law
that regulates the labelling of imported fish. The new law, recently passed by the US
Congress, restricts the use in the US market of the name "catfish" to fish in the family
Ictaluridae, or North American channel catfish.
The US Embassy in Hanoi stated in a press release last week that the new law was
not meant to prohibit the import of Vietnamese catfish or restrict the export of fish
from Vietnamto the US.
However, Minh said that the US legislation aimed to protect the monopoly of local
catfish farmers.
American catfish farmers have spared no efforts to tarnish the image of Viet Nam's
basa and tra catfish in their market and bring pressure to bear on US legislators to ban
Vietnamese imports, she said.
She said that the action of the US Congress in passing the law ran counter to the
bilateral trade pact that came into force recently.
Vietnam News Agency - January 08, 2002.
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