The Southern Shrimp Alliance, representing the U.S. shrimp industry, strongly commends President Trump’s decisive Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness Executive Order signed on April 17. This critical action directly confronts the existential threats facing our domestic shrimp industry: unfair trade practices, use of forced labor, unsafe imports, and regulatory imbalances that have decimated America’s fisheries and coastal communities.
“American shrimpers harvest a premium, sustainable product from our local waters that provides Americans with a healthy protein source while supporting multigenerational shrimping families and their communities,” said John Williams, the executive director of the Southern Shrimp Alliance. “What most Americans don’t realize when they purchase shrimp is that more than 90% of what’s consumed in the U.S. is a foreign product—mostly farm-raised in countries tainted by serious human rights abuses, environmental destruction, and banned antibiotics.”
While American shrimpers follow the world’s strictest regulations, foreign competitors have benefited from an uneven playing field for decades.
The India Problem: A Case Study in Exploitation
India, which dominates U.S. shrimp imports, represents everything this Executive Order aims to correct.
- Forced Labor. The U.S. Department of Labor officially added Indian shrimp to its 2024 List of Goods Produced with Child or Forced Labor following damning investigations by Corporate Accountability Lab, the Outlaw Ocean Project, Associated Press, (and more recently CNN) documenting systemic exploitation of vulnerable workers.
- Banned Antibiotics. Indian shrimp consistently tops FDA rejection lists for banned antibiotics and veterinary drug contamination. In 2024, nearly 40% of all FDA shrimp rejections for drug residues came from India alone, with evidence suggesting rejected products have been re-exported to enter the United States through another port.
- Environmental Devastation. Shrimp farming practices in India have destroyed local ecosystems and water supplies according to third-party investigations.
Despite the known problems, Indian shrimp continue to be consumed more than any other shrimp in the United States, displacing ethically produced U.S. wild-caught shrimp.
Imminent Import Surge Threatens American Shrimpers
As American shrimpers prepare for the May season opening, they face an unprecedented threat. Indian shrimp exporters are reportedly planning to flood the U.S. market with 35,000-40,000 tons of shrimp during the announced 90-day tariff pause—a deliberate attempt to evade the recently assigned 27% tariff rate. Yet, President Trump has made it clear that foreign countries can no longer take advantage of the United States.
“This exploitative surge could devastate American shrimpers by filling cold storage facilities and collapsing wholesale prices just as our boats head out,” Williams warned. “Yet, we trust the Trump Administration will vigilantly monitor and address any import surges that further threaten American producers because of its strong commitment to restoring the competitiveness of America’s seafood industry.”
A Path Forward
Addressing unsafe seafood imports and forced labor in seafood supply chains could minimize the damage from a surge. This Executive Order provides federal agencies with both the mandate and tools to level the playing field permanently by:
- Enforcing rigorous safety inspections for imported seafood, aligning FDA seafood practices with those of the USDA’s for Siluriformes, including pangasius (basa/tra/swai) and catfish
- Blocking products tied to forced labor and environmental destruction, which can be done quickly through Withhold Release Orders (WRO)
- Reducing regulatory burdens that uniquely disadvantage American shrimpers and incorporating less expensive and more reliable technologies and cooperative research programs into fishery assessments
“American shrimpers don’t fear fair competition,” Williams stated. “What we seek is simply a marketplace where the highest standards of ethics, safety, and sustainability are rewarded, not penalized. President Trump’s Executive Order represents the most significant action in decades to restore American seafood sovereignty and protect seafood consumers.”
Read the full Executive Order: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/restoring-american-seafood-competitiveness/
Read the associated Fact Sheet: https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/04/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-restores-american-seafood-competitiveness/
Watch the video of the Signing with Q&A: https://www.youtube.com/live/frRaP7lFz8M