Catfish row mars Vietnam trade talks
US and Vietnamese talks on trade have
become bogged down by a dispute over
catfish.
The deputy prime minister of Vietnam, Nguyen
Tan Dung, has criticised the United States for
a new law restricting the imports of
Vietnamese catfish, after returning from a visit
there.
The dispute is the first bilateral trade row
since relationships between the two countries
became normalised.
The deputy prime minister's visit was the first
by a high-ranking Vietnamese delegation since
the Bilateral Trade Agreement was approved
earlier this year.
Delta fresh
Tthe US Senate moved to block catfish imports
earlier this week by specifying that only a
limited number of species can be labelled
catfish.
US catfish production is one of the world's
largest aquaculture industries.
Vietnamese farmers - keen to reduce their
reliance on rice production - have taken an
increasingly large stake of that market.
The introduction of the law follows concerns
about hygiene - since dismissed by visiting US
officials - and concerns about trademarks.
Part of the problem is that Vietnamese catfish
is often referred to as Delta Fresh, confusing
buyers who think they are buying US produce.
In fact it is from the Mekong Delta in southern
Vietnam.
Protectionist behaviour?
"I think it has made a lot of Vietnamese angry.
"They look at the situation and think this is
protectionist behaviour on the American side,
yet we just agreed to ratify a trade agreement
which pushed for open trade... there is a bit of
hypocrisy," Mekong Research's Sam Korsmoe
told the BBC's World Business Report.
The trade embargo against Vietnam was only
lifted by President Clinton in 1994.
With a population of 80 million, Vietnam is the
world's 14th most populous nation, but trade
with the US amounted to only $1.2bn last
year.
Analysts expect that this could more than
double with normal trade relations.
BBC News - December 20, 2001.
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