Submissions in response to the Office of the United States Trade Representative’s (USTR) request for comments identifying unfair trade practices by and any non-reciprocal trade arrangements with other countries were due last week, on March 11th. Submitted comments will be used by the USTR to develop a report with recommendations as to what actions President Trump should take to meaningfully address harm caused to Americans by unfair trade.
In response to its request, the USTR received 756 submissions. Of these, 183 regarded the damage done to the U.S. shrimp industry by unfair trade practices and non-reciprocal trading arrangements. Shrimp industry members were, by far, the single largest participant in the comment process, accounting for nearly one-quarter of all submissions received by the USTR.
These comments came from a number of shrimp industry organizations, including the Southern Shrimp Alliance, the American Shrimp Processors Association, the Texas Shrimp Association, the South Carolina Shrimper’s Association, the Louisiana Shrimp Association, the United States Shrimpers Coalition, the Port Arthur Area Shrimper’s Association, Mississippi Commercial Fisheries United, the Georgia Commercial Fisherman’s Association, the Alabama Commercial Fisherman Association LLC, the Seafood Work and Waterman’s Association, and the United Commercial Fishermen’s Association. Comments were also submitted in support of the domestic shrimp industry by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and by organizations like Stella Maris – Diocese of Beaumont, Texas, the Apostleship of the Sea of the United States of America, and SeaD Consulting. Outside of these groups, submissions were made on behalf of individual packing plants, boat owners, crew members, unloading docks, and associated businesses dependent on the U.S. shrimp industry from across the coastline of the South Atlantic and Gulf of America.
The submissions filed with the USTR emphasized the tenuous state of the domestic shrimp industry as it has been forced to confront historically low prices caused by a massive oversupply of imported, farm-raised shrimp. In comment after comment, industry members reported being unable to fish or leaving the industry altogether because of an inability to operate profitably. Fishermen pointed to the continued use of banned antibiotics in foreign shrimp aquaculture, findings of forced labor in shrimp supply chains, and the subsidization of shrimp farms by foreign governments and International Financial Institutions as unfair trade practices that are devastating a heavily regulated American industry that operates without government support.
Further emphasizing these concerns, on Monday, Rep. Troy A. Carter (D-LA) sent a letter to the USTR, Ambassador Jamieson Greer, and to the Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, requesting that the Administration take action to address the damage done by shrimp imports.
“There is very little that members of this industry are going to agree on,” said John Williams, the executive director of the Southern Shrimp Alliance. “Like most of the rest of the fishery, I became a commercial fisherman because I value my independence. But with imports, there is no dispute, we are being crushed by federal government policies that have throttled American fishermen while blowing our doors wide open to farm-raised foreign shrimp. We need President Trump’s help to make things right and get our shrimpers back working.”
Read the Southern Shrimp Alliance’s March 11, 2025 comments to the USTR here: https://shrimpalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Southern-Shrimp-Alliance-USTR-2025-0001-00110805-CAT-5530-Public-Document-1.pdf
Review a full compendium of comments submitted to the USTR regarding the shrimp industry here: https://shrimpalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Compilation-of-USTR-Comments-v9-1.pdf
Access the full docket of the 756 comments filed with the USTR here: https://comments.ustr.gov/s/docket?docketNumber=USTR-2025-0001
Read Rep. Troy A. Carter’s (D-LA) March 17, 2025 letter to Ambassador Jamieson Greer, United States Trade Representative, and U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick here: https://shrimpalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Rep-Carter-Letter-to-Commerce-and-USTR-re-shrimp-industry-March-2025.pdf