The United States has enacted a new law defining Vietnamese tra and basa as “catfish” on the Vietnamese fish imported into the country. It is said that by labeling the imported Vietnamese fish as “basa”, “tra”, “swai” or “catfish” this still does not affect the good quality of fish from the Mekong Delta region. Imposing new law label is adopted or Vietnamese fish imports are put under stricter control, the quality of Vietnamese tra and basa catfish will be the same.
After pressures from the US catfish industry the US Congress passed a law preventing the imported fish from being labeled as catfish. US legislators told that even though Vietnamese tra and basa are also catfish, the word catfish does not describe every kind of catfish in general and only species from the family Ictaluridae can be sold as true catfish.
The US Congress imposed a temporary ban saying only the US fish are called “catfish” while Vietnamese fish must be called “tra” or “basa”. However, the US is now changing tune to demand labeling the Vietnamese tra and basa as “catfish”. The US also decided to impose a high anti-dumping tax rate of 64 percent on the imported Vietnamese tra and basa, which accounted for around 5 percent of the US market share at the time.
Currently, Vietnam has dozens of businesses, which meet US requirements to export their products at zero tax rates. The US has conducted several surveys on Vietnamese fish breeding areas and has confirmed that production processes are safe. Vietnam is also considering protecting its tra and basa brand name at any cost to confirm that its fish are of high quality.
