Today, the Southern Shrimp Alliance partnered with other domestic seafood producers, including members of the domestic crawfish industry and the Oregon Trawl Commission (OTC), to formally request that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) initiate a Section 301 investigation to address the unfair trade practice of using banned veterinary drugs in aquaculture in China, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam for seafood exported to the United States.
As members of the U.S. shrimp industry have observed for decades, foreign farmed-shrimp producers lower their production costs by using harmful veterinary drugs. These drugs act both to reduce disease risks presented by high density aquaculture and to promote growth in shrimp. At the same time, use of banned drugs presents undisclosed risks to American consumers and undermines confidence in seafood sold in this market.
For example, chloramphenicol – a banned antibiotic that continues to be used in shrimp aquaculture – presents potentially fatal threats to vulnerable populations with certain blood disorders. Other banned veterinary drugs are carcinogenic and/or genotoxic. Moreover, the continued abuse of antibiotics in shrimp aquaculture has significantly contributed to the spread of antimicrobial resistant pathogens.
Because these veterinary drugs are not permitted for use in the United States, they are not present in U.S.-produced seafood, whether farmed or wild-caught. Nevertheless, due to the massive presence of foreign farmed seafood in this market, countries that fail to regulate harmful antibiotics put millions of pounds of contaminated seafood before American consumers each year. These countries also pressure other foreign industries to also use banned antibiotics in order to counter the competitive advantage, creating a race to the bottom.
At present, China, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam together account for nearly one-third of the total value of U.S. seafood imports. India and Vietnam, alone, comprise roughly half (48 percent) of the total volume of U.S. shrimp imports. The shrimp industries in both of these countries continue to utilize banned antibiotics. Since 2022, shrimp from these two countries accounted for 63 percent (147 out of 235) of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) shrimp entry line refusals for veterinary drugs. From 2012 to 2024, 96 percent (310 out of 323) of the refusals of shrimp imports for reasons related to banned antibiotics by the Japanese government were of shrimp from India and Vietnam, while these two countries constituted 88 percent (153 out of 174) of the European Union’s (EU) shrimp import refusals for banned antibiotics.
The threat to American consumers caused by the continued abuse of illegal veterinary drugs in Indian and Vietnamese aquaculture is further heightened by the additional steps taken by other major shrimp importing markets to combat the problem. For instance, the EU requires that 100 percent of shrimp exported from these two countries be tested for the presence of banned antibiotics prior to exportation to EU countries and, because compliance rates for Indian shrimp are still poor, the EU itself tests 50 percent of Indian shrimp shipments prior to importation. With no similar steps taken by the FDA to ensure the safety of Indian and Vietnamese shrimp shipped to this market, investigative journalists have documented how shrimp found to be contaminated with banned antibiotics prior to exportation is diverted to the United States.
By failing to enforce bans on the use of veterinary drugs, China, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam allow their exporters to evade regulatory burdens imposed on U.S. producers. Again and again, American seafood producers are held to higher standards, with higher attendant costs, than their foreign competitors. As a result, American seafood producers have struggled to compete for sales, while imports now comprise over 90 percent of the seafood consumed in the United States.
In his Executive Order of April 17, 2025, Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness, President Trump stated that it was the policy of the United States to “protect our seafood markets from the unfair trade practices of foreign nations.” Through the Executive Order, President Trump instructed the USTR to “examine the relevant trade practices of major seafood-producing nations” and, if unfair trade practices are identified, to pursue “solutions through negotiations or trade enforcement authorities, such as under section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2411).” The use of banned antibiotics in foreign aquaculture is an unfair trade practice that has significantly impacted the U.S. market, both by encouraging the importation of cheap, contaminated foreign seafood and by putting American commercial seafood producers out of business.
“For over twenty years, the U.S. shrimp industry has catalogued the continued use of banned antibiotics in foreign shrimp aquaculture,” said John Williams, Executive Director of the SSA. “Now those industries that routinely abuse veterinary drugs dominate our market and are pushing American fishermen and farmers out of business. This is an unfair trade practice that must end and we are proud to join with other U.S. seafood industries in this call to action.”
Read the July 14, 2025 letter to the USTR here: https://shrimpalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Section-301-Letter-FINAL.pdf