Yesterday, Senator Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) introduced the Home Market Restoration Act of 2026, legislation to establish tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) on shrimp and a number of import-sensitive food and agricultural products. The bill aims to stop import surges and restore fair prices to support U.S. food producers, while allowing lawful trade.
A tariff-rate quota is a tool to address unfair trade that SSA has been pursuing alongside food producers, such as the Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation, American Honey Producers Association, the Catfish Farmers of America, and the Crawfish Processors Alliance. It allows a specific quantity of a foreign product to be imported. Once that volume limit is reached, additional imports are still allowed but incur additional tariffs.
Critically, the TRQs proposed for shrimp and other food products are country-specific. That structure disincentivizes foreign suppliers in any single country from targeting the U.S. market with excess production, since each country has its own quota rather than sharing one global limit.
“For years, foreign producers have dumped surplus shrimp on the U.S. market with no regard for what our market can absorb, and American shrimpers have paid the price,” said Blake Price, Executive Director of the Southern Shrimp Alliance. “Senator Cassidy’s Home Market Restoration Act puts country-specific limits on that flood, so trade stays fair instead of just one-way. This bill is exactly the kind of fix our nation needs to ensure food security.”
The Numbers: Country-by-Country Shrimp Quotas
The Home Market Restoration Act of 2026 sets out specific country-by-country quotas for shrimp entering the United States. Once a country’s import volume reaches the trigger volume, any additional shrimp from that country would be subject to a 40% ad valorem duty, in addition to any duties that already apply.
Country | Total quota (kg) | Sub-category limits (kg) |
India | 267,256,624 | Farmed warmwater: 221,806,669 |
Ecuador | 181,164,793 | Farmed warmwater: 170,278,576 |
Indonesia | 126,461,553 | Farmed warmwater: 77,791,091 |
Vietnam | 58,876,290 | Farmed warmwater: 22,951,774 |
Thailand | 25,673,328 | Farmed warmwater: 7,711,070 |
Mexico | 13,199,538 | Wild-caught warmwater: 5,397,749 |
Argentina | 13,063,460 | Wild-caught warmwater: 11,113,013 |
China | 2,948,350 | Breaded: 2,766,913 |
All other countries | 2,721,554 | — |
The eight named countries are far from the only nations with shrimp aquaculture industries, but they collectively account for over 98% of the volume of shrimp imports into the United States. India, Ecuador, Indonesia, and Vietnam alone were responsible for more than 91% of all frozen, non-breaded shrimp imported into the U.S. last year.
Stability to Increase Food Independence
The past two decades have shown that America’s shrimp industry can be profitable under stable market conditions. What the industry cannot endure is large floods of cheap imports caused by oversupply abroad—surges that have nothing to do with U.S. demand and everything to do with foreign producers needing somewhere to dump excess subsidized product, including shrimp with antibiotic contamination likely to be detected and destroyed by other major markets.
When cheap, imported shrimp flooded into the U.S. market over several recent years, there were immediate consequences for America’s capacity to harvest shrimp. The surge of non-breaded frozen warmwater shrimp imports started in 2020 and exceeded 816 million kilograms in 2021. According to NOAA’s Economic Snapshot:
- Revenue collapse: Total Gulf shrimp revenue fell more than 50 percent in just two years, from $489 million in 2021 to $221 million in 2023.
- Historic price lows: Adjusted for inflation, the average 2023 dockside price—under $2.00 per pound—was the lowest ever recorded, down from over $6.00 per pound in the 1980s.
- Negative margins: The federal fleet posted a negative 6.1% profit margin in 2023, leaving producers unable to reinvest in aging vessels and infrastructure.
- Job losses: An estimated 1,200 jobs were lost on federal shrimp vessels between 2021 and 2023 as active vessels dropped 19%.
The proposed TRQs would deter such harmful surges, while maintaining a more open market than what U.S. shrimpers face abroad. India applies duties and fees totaling 40% on all shrimp imported from the United States to protect its domestic producers.
“This bill provides a fair-trade framework that lets American shrimpers compete on a level playing field, without shutting off lawful trade altogether,” said Price. “Senator Bill Cassidy’s leadership in organizing these diverse industries and developing this TRQ legislation provides a viable pathway to reducing our dependence on foreign food suppliers. An inability to produce the food we consume not only devastates rural communities throughout the United States but also critically undermines our national security, leaving all Americans vulnerable.”