American Catfish, Crawfish, and Shrimp Industries Weigh in with USTR
On Monday, the Southern Shrimp Alliance, joined by the American Shrimp Processors Association, the Catfish Farmers of America, the Crawfish Processors Alliance, and the Crawfish Commodity Committee of the Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation, submitted comments expressing strong support in favor of the Office of the United States Trade Representative (“USTR”) proposal that additional tariffs of 12.5 percent be imposed on imported goods from China, India, Thailand, and Vietnam, including seafood, and additional tariffs of 10 percent be imposed on imported merchandise from Ecuador, Indonesia, and Mexico, including seafood.
In those comments, the American seafood producers highlighted Appendix C of the USTR’s Report in Section 301 Investigations: Acts, Policies, and Practices of Various Economies Related to the Failure to Impose and Effectively Enforce a Prohibition on the Importation of Goods Produced with Forced Labor, identifying countries that imported fish as inputs from nations where fish is harvested with forced labor that also exported processed seafood and fishmeal products to the United States, including India, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam. As the USTR’s Report explains, the failure of these countries to prohibit the importation of goods produced through forced labor unfairly reduces the cost of inputs for the production of merchandise exported to the United States, harming American producers forced to compete with these imports.
While noting their agreement with this analysis, the American seafood producers observed that the USTR’s Report failed to address the principal means through which inputs produced through forced labor distort the U.S. and global markets for seafood: trade in farmed seafood raised on fishmeal produced from fish harvested through forced labor. Addressing the specific supply chains attributable to each of the seven countries, the American seafood producers described how access to fishmeal imports produced in countries where the fishing industry is associated with forced labor unfairly reduced costs for foreign suppliers and reduced the prices paid for U.S. commercial fishermen and farmers.
Southern Shrimp Alliance Testifies at Public Hearing
Following the submission of written comments, the Southern Shrimp Alliance presented testimony at a public hearing before the Section 301 Committee yesterday in Washington D.C. At the hearing, federal government officials asked witnesses about the domestic seafood industry’s capability to increase production should import volumes be reduced. A representative from the American Coalition for Fair Trade in Seafood emphasized that in recent investigations conducted by the U.S. International Trade Commission, that federal agency confirmed that both the domestic catfish and shrimp industry had substantial unused capacity and were capable of significantly increasing production with improved market conditions. Similarly, the Southern Shrimp Alliance noted that the large number of shrimp boats tied up across the Gulf and South Atlantic was a testament to how the U.S. shrimp industry could quickly harvest significantly more shrimp.
Trade Relief Will Spur Substantial Increases in American Seafood Production
Although groups representing seafood importers claim that American seafood production could not be reasonably expected to increase if action was taken to curb imports, these arguments are not supported by official government data. Instead, official government reported statistics make clear that American seafood production has declined significantly over the last few years as imports have been permitted to seize an even greater share of the U.S. market.
- According to NOAA Fisheries, in the nine year period running from 2011 to 2019, American commercial fishermen landed an annual average of 9.7 billion pounds of fish valued at $5.5 billion. However, in the five years between 2020 and 2024, landings have fallen to an annual average of 8.3 billion pounds – a decline of 14.3 percent.
- Although the value of the seafood harvested in U.S. waters initially increased following COVID, with commercial landings valued at $6.5 bill in 2021, prices have since collapsed under pressure from imports, with total landings reported to be worth just $4.9 billion in 2024, a drop of 25 percent in three years.
- The U.S. shrimp industry in the Gulf and South Atlantic has been particularly hard hit.
- Commercial landings of shrimp were 227.5 million pounds in 2021, valued at $521 million, consistent with the annual average of the preceding decade (2011 to 2020 = 236.2 million lbs. valued at $478.2 million).
- Shrimp prices collapsed in 2023 and the 210.9 million pounds of shrimp landed in 2023 were valued at only $269.1 million.
- With half of the value of domestic shrimp wiped out, boats tied up in 2024 and the volume of warmwater shrimp landings dropped to just 158.2 million pounds that year.
- Preliminary reporting from NOAA Fisheries indicates that President Trump’s actions to address unfairly-traded imports last year resulted in a ten percent increase in the volume of warmwater shrimp harvested in the United States last year compared to 2024. Similar significant increases in shrimp production are anticipated this year if there are further improvements in market conditions.
- Similarly, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that the American catfish industry has seen its water acreage used for the production of catfish fall from 63,760 acres in 2018 to 48,115 acres this year – a loss of 25 percent of production area over the past nine years.
“Years of granting foreign seafood preferential access to our market has devastated all American fishermen and farmers forced to compete with these imports,” said Blake Price, Executive Director of the Southern Shrimp Alliance. “The Trump Administration continues to prove its commitment to American workers and businesses by directly confronting the true cost of cheap imports. The U.S. shrimp industry strongly supports the USTR’s proposal to impose additional tariffs on imported seafood and is grateful for everything being done by our federal government to get fishermen back to work.”
Review the July 6th joint submission of the American Shrimp Processors Association, the Catfish Farmers of America, the Crawfish Processors Alliance, and the Crawfish Commodity Committee of the Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation and Southern Shrimp Alliance to the USTR in the Section 301 investigations on forced labor here: https://shrimpalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/SSA-ASPA-CFA-CPA-LFBF-USTR-2026-0265-00132137-CAT-19083-Public-Document.pdf
Review the July 6th submission of the American Coalition for Fair Trade in Seafood to the USTR in the Section 301 investigations on forced labor here: https://shrimpalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/American-Coalition-for-Fair-Trade-in-Seafood-USTR-2026-0265-00132591-CAT-19658-Public-Document.pdf
Read the testimony provided on behalf of the Southern Shrimp Alliance on Panel 14 of the July 8th public hearing on the Section 301 investigations on forced labor here: https://shrimpalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Southern-Shrimp-Alliance-Testimony-Panel-14-July-8-2026.pdf