Yesterday, the Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, James Comer (R-KY), joined by Representatives Clay Higgins (R-LA) and Troy Nehls (R-TX), formally requested that the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigate and review the U.S. Department of Treasury’s (Treasury) votes on shrimp aquaculture projects funded by international financial institutions, including the World Bank.
As Chairman Comer, Rep. Higgins, and Rep. Nehls observe, Congress has instructed Treasury to oppose any funding by the World Bank of projects supporting the production of a commodity if the export of that commodity to the United States would cause substantial injury to a U.S. industry. Nevertheless, there is no indication that Treasury has ever opposed a World Bank project intended to increase farmed shrimp production.
World Bank funding for programs expanding shrimp aquaculture have caused massive harm to the American shrimp industry. Since 2012, there have been at least eight significant projects supported by international financial institutions designed to increase production of farmed shrimp in Ecuador. Over the last few years, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a part of the World Bank, has publicized multiple projects supporting major Ecuadorian shrimp exporters to the United States. These projects have received U.S. taxpayer support as imports of Ecuadorian shrimp have flooded the U.S. market. The U.S. International Trade Commission reports that the volume of Ecuadorian frozen warmwater shrimp imported into the United States has grown from 266.3 million pounds in 2020 to 440.9 million pounds in 2023. Over that time frame, Ecuador’s share of the U.S. market has increased from 11.5 percent in 2020 to 21.5 percent in 2023. Yesterday, the Commission issued a report indicating that Ecuador’s share of the U.S. market grew to a record high of 26.8 percent in the first quarter of 2024.
As Ecuadorian shrimp has poured into the U.S. market, shrimp prices have collapsed both for the American shrimp industry and for all other foreign suppliers to this market. The meteoric rise in the supply of Ecuadorian shrimp into the United States has wiped out investments by small businesses in this country and by shrimp farmers in other countries that had previously sold their shrimp to Americans. Yet, despite the harm caused by creating an oversupply of shrimp in the global market, the IFC has continued to back Ecuadorian shrimp projects without objection from Treasury.
Earlier this year, Representative Nehls (R-TX) joined by co-sponsors Representatives Higgins (R-LA), Byron Donalds (R-FL), Mike Ezell (R-MS), Garret Graves (R-LA), Nancy Mace (R-SC), Rep. Barry Moore (R-AL), and Randy Weber (R-TX) introduced the Save Our Shrimpers Act. The bill prohibits U.S. taxpayer funds from being used by international financial institutions to finance any activity relating to shrimp farming, the processing of shrimp, or shrimp exports in a foreign country. Since its introduction as H.R. 7932, the Save Our Shrimpers Act has obtained broad, bipartisan support, including from Representatives Vincente Gonzalez (D-TX), Brian Babin (R-TX), Russel Fry (R-SC), Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), Julia Letlow (R-LA), Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), David Rouzer (R-NC), Michael Cloud (R-TX), Gregory Murphy (R-NC), Bill Posey (R-FL), Jerry Carl (R-AL), John Rutherford (R-FL), Buddy Carter (R-GA), Derrick Van Orden (R-WI), Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO), and Troy Carter (D-LA). In total, the bill has attracted 23 co-sponsors from ten different states.
The Save Our Shrimpers Act also includes a provision requiring the GAO to review Treasury’s votes on World Bank projects. As the Southern Shrimp Alliance has documented through the development of a searchable database of the federal agency’s votes on international financial institution projects, there is little indication that Treasury accounts for the harm caused by World Bank funding on U.S. industries that are forced to compete for sales with internationally-subsidized commodity exports.
The database of votes available on the Southern Shrimp Alliance’s website follows up on the organization’s release of A Crisis of Our Own Making, a research report cataloguing the role played by international financial institutions, like the World Bank, in the creation of excess shrimp aquaculture capacity throughout the world.
“The World Bank has played a central role in the oversupply of shrimp in the global market,” said John Williams, Executive Director of the Southern Shrimp Alliance. “Although Congress created safeguards to prevent U.S. taxpayer funds from being used to destroy American industries, these requirements are routinely ignored. The Southern Shrimp Alliance is grateful to the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, to Chairman James Comer (R-KY), and to the shrimp industry’s stalwart supporters, Reps. Troy Nehls (R-TX) and Clay Higgins (R-LA), for their efforts to prevent future World Bank funding of shrimp farming projects.”
Review the November 12, 2024 letter sent from Chairman James Comer (R-KY), Representative Clay Higgins (R-LA), and Representative Troy Nehls (R-TX) to the U.S. Government Accountability Office here: https://shrimpalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Letter-to-GAO-on-USC-262h.pdf
Read the press release from House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, Comer, Higgins & Nehls Press GAO to Assess U.S. Treasury Compliance with Law to Protect U.S. Shrimp Industry (Nov. 12, 2024) here: https://oversight.house.gov/release/comer-higgins-nehls-press-gao-to-assess-u-s-treasury-compliance-with-law-to-protect-u-s-shrimp-industry/
Review the Save Our Shrimpers Act here: https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/7932
Read A Crisis of Our Own Making: U.S.-Backed Development Funding of Foreign Shrimp Aquaculture Is Substantially Injuring the American Shrimp Industry (Aug. 2023) here: https://shrimpalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/A-Crisis-of-Our-Own-Making-Aug-2023.pdf
Access the Southern Shrimp Alliance’s searchable database of the U.S. Department of Treasury’s votes regarding multilateral development bank loans since January 2004 here: https://shrimpalliance.com/issues/fighting-for-fair-trade/mdi-funding-of-shrimp-aquaculture/