ASHLEY COUNTY, Ark. – A favorite fried fish could be seeing some choppy waters soon. A tariff protecting U.S. catfish farmers from foreign frozen fish flooding the market is currently on its way out.
The impact of the preliminary decision by the U.S. Department of Commerce in the 19th administrative review of the antidumping duty order on U.S. imports of Certain Frozen Fish Fillets from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam would be felt immediately.
The proposed reduction is 94% less than what the import tax is now. The move is the latest turn of a catfish war dating back to just before the turn of the century.
Brad Graham became a first-generation catfish farmer in 1997 when he says business was growing, but not long after imports of Vietnamese frozen fish started eating market share, shrinking or closing farms similar to Graham’s Cat Pro LLC.
“We went from a 600 plus million industry to a 300 million pound industry. All of that happened when the imports came in,” Graham explained.
A lawsuit in 2003 by catfish farmers ended with the government agreeing that Vietnamese import prices were too low to intentionally drive American producers out.
“And they’re winning at it,” Graham expressed.
For two decades a tariff at $2.39/kg helped keep American prices competitive, but weeks ago the Department of Commerce announced a preliminary decision to reduce the tax for Vietnamese frozen fish to just 14 cents.
“You have some that want only U.S. product, and you have some shopping for the price, and we can’t compete with price even with the tariff. We can be close, but without the tariff, we can’t even be close,” Graham said. “I mean it’s going to change the industry dramatically.”
Senators from the four states of Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi are urging the preliminary decision be reversed. A part of a sent a letter to the Department of Commerce by the senators stated:
“Commerce’s decision, if not reversed, will upend decades of agency precedent and weaken trade relief granted to domestic industries. It will cause a flood of unfairly priced imports from non-market economy countries like Vietnam, China, and Russia into the United States which will irreparably harm American industries.”
On Wednesday, Arkansas Sen. John Boozman said nothing had changed yet as a result of the joint letter.
His statement read:
“We’re experiencing a record agriculture trade deficit as a result of the Biden administration’s unwillingness to engage and strike fair trade deals. Instead of pursuing ways to create additional opportunities for American producers, it is considering allowing more foreign catfish to enter the U.S. market, which puts Arkansas’s producers at a competitive disadvantage. I will continue to support the domestic catfish industry and work to level the playing field for producers and processors.”
KARK 4 News emailed and called the Department of Commerce for comment, but has not yet received a response after 24 hours.
“I guess you could say it’s kind of heartbreaking,” Graham said. “We want everyone to have an equal playing field, and that’s what we’re looking for. We can’t compete with in any of our commodities with foreign prices.”
Arkansas is third in the nation for catfish production and comparably high for catfish consumption. The industry generates more than $20 million in sales for the state every year.
