After years of arguing that the Vietnamese fish isn't catfish — and winning a federal law saying as much — the U.S. farmers are now trying to have it both ways, reports YallPolitics.
According to the news association, under their latest lobbying strategy, they want the Vietnamese imports considered catfish so that they will be covered by a new inspections regime that they pushed through Congress last year.
The move — an example of how influential industries work their will in Congress — could block Vietnamese imports for years and risks a broader trade war.
If the Obama administration signs off on the plan, the fish that's long been a staple of Southern cooking could unravel years of improving relations between the U.S. and its former enemy, says YallPolitics.
The inspections feud is the latest in a long-running battle between a $400 million domestic farm sector that raises catfish in ponds across the Mississippi Delta and a burgeoning industry in Vietnam, where fish are raised in ponds and cages along the Mekong River.
US Catfish Plan Threatens Trade War
GENERAL - A new US catfish plan is threatening a trade war with Viet Nam.
