Catfish Discussion

Date: Wed, 6 Nov 2002 13:31:29 -0500

From: Dan Duffy <dduffy@email.unc.edu>

Reply-To: vsg@u.washington.edu

To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>

Subject: catfish

I came home last night from a presentation by Nguyen Thi Ngoc Toan about dioxin in Viet Nam, to find an article in the New York Times that broached the issue in a new way. Seth Mydans reports that VN fish farmers who have entered the US market are meeting with protectionist legislation. John McCain, bless his heart, maintains that this is un-American. Mydans takes the view rather that VNese industry is learning how to play hardball in the US market.

What grabbed my eye was the argument of the advocate of US catfish interests, Rep Marion Berry (Democrat, Arkansas) that Vietnamese fish are contaminated by Agent Orange. It's not spelled out the article, but he seems to be calling for labelling by national origin, and import penalites for dumping tainted product. He doesn't call the chemical dioxin, I suppose because Americans associate "dioxin" with domestic pollution and "Agent Orange" with the war.

"Americans and Vietnamese Fighting Over Catfish" by Seth Mydans, NYT, Tu Nov 5, 2002, page A3

Date: Wed, 6 Nov 2002 14:58:04 -0500

From: Susan Hammond <frdev@mindspring.com>

Reply-To: vsg@u.washington.edu

To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>

Subject: RE: catfish

In August the International Trade Commission voted 5-0 that the importation of Vietnamese 'catfish' to the US has shown to have reasonable indications of injury' to US catfish producers. The Commerce department will now do an investigation to see if the Vietnamese are dumping 'catfish' at low prices in the US, the investigation could last up to a year. This is a follow-up to the act of congress mentioned in the article that states that only 'Ictaluridae." catfish can be called catfish in the US. Vietnamese catfish is Pangasiidae so must be labeled basa or tra when it is imported and has to show its country of origin on the label. When this did not stop the purchase in large volume of Vietnamese catfish, tra or basa or whatever you want to call it in the US, the next step was to say that Vietnam was dumping the fish at low prices. But if you follow this logic, according to the act passed by congress Vietnam is not exporting catfish but exporting another similar fish. So is it dumping to sell a product that is an unfamiliar species of fish at a lower price than US catfish even though it looks and tastes like catfish? I guess that is what the investigation will try to find out. You can follow the history of the catfish saga on our website at http://www.ffrd.org in the Washington Updates for the past year.

I also saw that reference that the fish are contaminated by Agent Orange but as far as I know Berry is not trying to stop the importation because of fear of dumping contaminated fish but because the imports are doing a number on domestic catfish prices. He is likely trying to scare purchasers of the fish into thinking that the Vietnamese fish is contaminated. I recall that rice producers in the US tried to do the same thing saying that VN rice was contaminated with Agent Orange but that also proved false, dioxin can not be stored in rice grains. Though the catfish and other seafood imported from Vietnam has been tested and proven to be dioxin free, it is true that dioxin can be found in the fatty tissues of fish in areas of Vietnam where there are still high levels of TCDD dioxin from Agent Orange and this accusation could hurt VN fish products. But to be contaminated the fish would have to be farmed on the site of an old military base where the Agent Orange was stored or where a large spill occurred or possibly at the site where the dioxin would have been washed down to collect in one area, dioxin is not water soluble but it does cling to soil particles and can be found at the bottom of ponds, and Berry is right that it takes a very long time to breakdown.

Hatfield's studies have shown that the TCDD dioxin is not found in dangerous levels in areas where the aerial spraying occurred, which is where the catfish are presumably farmed in the Mekong delta, but TCDD dioxin is found in high levels where it was stored or spilled and the dioxin is entering the food chain through the fatty tissues of fish and animals and this is causing a current public health danger to the Vietnamese who live in these areas. Many NGOs in Vietnam are now working with the Vietnamese government to address this issue and since clean-up or containment of these areas is prohibitively expensive and moving the population away difficult they are developing educational materials to instruct the people who live in Agent Orange 'hot spot' areas such as around the A So, Da Nang and Bien Hoa bases (to name a few of the areas) that they need to clean the soil off of vegetables and that they should not eat the fatty tissues of fish and ducks. Unfortunately since it is an Agent Orange issue it is very sensitive so that some NGOs that get US government money are often hesitant to talk about the dangers of TCDD dioxin in the educational materials and programs that they already have dealing with child nutrition and hygiene. But if the US government starts to shout too loudly that there may be Agent Orange contaminating fish in Vietnam in order to protect the domestic catfish industry, they will have to admit that Agent Orange is still a problem for Vietnam and a current health hazard, that is not something that they want to be widely known.

FYI if you are in the NY City area we will have a lunch for Dr. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Toan on Friday Nov. 15th at our office located at 355 West 39th street. She is in Philly at AFSC on the 13th.

Susan

Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2002 15:26:30 -0500

From: Susan Hammond <frdev@mindspring.com>

Reply-To: vsg@u.washington.edu

To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>

Subject: Vietnam ruled by US Commerce Department to be a non-market economy

One thing that I forgot to mention in my email about the Catfish is that one of the issues with the anti-dumping investigation is whether or not Vietnam has a market-economy. Last Friday the US Commerce department has ruled that Vietnam has a non-market economy for purposes of antidumping and countervailing duty proceedings. Which will not help the catfish case (See article below).

The determination for this ruling according to the document at website http://ia.ita.doc.gov/download/vietnam-nme-status/02-20674.txt was on the following:

The Department invites public comment on Vietnam's economy in regards to the factors listed in section 771(18)(B) of the Act, which the Department must take into account when making a non-market economy status determination:

(i) The extent to which the currency of the foreign country is convertible into the currency of other countries;

(ii) The extent to which wage rates in the foreign country are determined by free bargaining between labor and management;

(iii) The extent to which joint ventures or other investments by firms of other foreign countries are permitted in the foreign country;

(iv) The extent of government ownership or control of the means of production;

(v) The extent of government control over allocation of resources and over price and output decisions of enterprises; and

(vi) Such other factors as the administering authority considers appropriate.

For the full report on their findings go to http://ia.ita.doc.gov/download/vietnam-nme-status/vietnam-market-status-determination.pdf

***********************************

AP World Politics

Vietnam catfish exporters denounce U.S. Commerce Department ruling

Wed Nov 13, 6:20 AM ET

HANOI, Vietnam - Vietnamese seafood exporters have denounced a U.S. Department of Commerce ruling that Vietnam has a non-market economy, a decision likely to hurt their chances in fighting charges of dumping catfish in the American market.

The Commerce Department (news - web sites) made the ruling last Friday as part of its ongoing investigation into claims by Mississippi Delta catfish farmers that Vietnamese producers are selling fish in the United States at unfairly low prices.

If it determines that Vietnam is dumping its catfish, the country would be subjected to high tariffs.

The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers said the ruling did not correctly reflect the current status of Vietnam's once-centrally planned economy.

"The DOC cannot prove that Vietnam's economy has less market characteristics than other countries which have been recognized by the DOC as market economies," it said in a statement received Wednesday.

Dumping is commonly defined as selling a product in another country for less than its price at home. But an appropriate domestic price is hard to determine if markets are not fully free, such as in Vietnam, which is currently implementing market-oriented reforms.

The Commerce Department investigation was launched after the U.S. International Trade Commission found in August that there was a "reasonable indication" that American producers were unfairly threatened by low-priced frozen Vietnamese catfish fillets.

The Catfish Farmers of America lobby group claims Vietnam unfairly captured 20 percent of the US$590 million U.S. frozen catfish fillet market.

Vietnamese producers say their fish costs less because of lower labor and feed costs.

An initial Commerce Department ruling on the dumping charges is expected in January, with a final decision to be made in May or June.

Vietnam's growing catfish industry, which employs between 300,000 and 400,000 people in the southern Mekong Delta region, sends a third of its exports to the U.S., with Europe and Asia taking the rest.

Susan Hammond

Deputy Director, Fund for Reconciliation and Development

Conference Coordinator, Forum on Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam

355 West 39th Street

New York, NY 10018

Tel: 212-760-9903

Fax: 212-760-9906

Email: shammond@ffrd.org

Website: http://www.ffrd.org

Date: Thu, 04 Sep 2003 12:57:23 +1000

From: David Marr <dgm405@coombs.anu.edu.au>

Reply-To: vsg@u.washington.edu

To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>

Subject: Ralph Cossa article

I've just come back from 6 weeks in Vietnam to encounter a mountain of emails in general, and the extensive VSG exchange on the Ralph Cossa article in particular. In Vietnam, I did not encounter a single person or newspaper article that worried Vietnam might be next after the US attacks North Korea. I suspect Cossa was overeager to gain the attention of his busy readers.

When Cossa proceeds to argue that the catfish dispute is so minor as to demonstrate that US-VN relations are "generally on track", it's obvious he's just another in and out parachuting pundit. Newspapers were full of acid remarks about American duplicity. More importantly, ordinary people expressed puzzlement, irritation or outright anger. Some worried that clothing and shrimp were next on the American hit list. Others were quick to criticize the entire rationale for trying to join the WTO.

Cossa is much too low-key when he refers to US unilateralism and arrogance as causing a "growing image problem". Older Vietnamese could tell him a few things about how far back this problem goes. The catfish dispute is important in 2003 because it undermines belief in salvation by means of export-oriented production It also show how little Vietnamese understand about the US political system.

David Marr