The Vietnamese Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) Vice Chairman, Nguyen Huu Dung, said the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is working on the Farm Bill, which includes provisions designed to restrict the import of tra catfish from Vietnam.

The bill extends the definition of “catfish” to include tra fish originating from Vietnam, and moves tra catfish into the list of products managed by the USDA, instead of the US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA), who currently manages the import of tra.

Mr Dung said that, once the new regulations are applied, the import of Vietnam’s tra fish will be controlled as tightly as the import of meat products into the US. Currently, only 34 countries have met the standards for meat exports to the US market and all of them are developed nations.

Describing the bill as a “very dangerous move” for Vietnam’s tra and basa catfish processing and exports, the VASEP official urged the government, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and the Ministry of Industry and Trade to lobby the US to remove obstacles to Vietnamese tra fillet exports.

Tra and basa catfish have become two of Vietnam’s key export staples, with export turnover exceeding US$1 billion in the first nine months of 2008 and estimated to reach a total of US$1.5 billion by the end of the year. The products are now available in more than 100 countries and territories around the world.