(VOVworld) – The US’s trade protection barriers are likely to cause drawbacks for seafood exports not only in Vietnam but also other ASEAN countries. The conclusion was made on the sidelines of a recent roundtable discussion on Vietnam-US agricultural cooperation in Washington DC, held by the Vietnamese embassy in the US. According to experts, the major obstacle to Vietnam’s export of agricultural products and seafood to the US market was the catfish supervision program of the US Department of Agriculture. If the program is put into operation, Vietnam’s catfish exports to the market was likely to be suspended for a long time to meet the US’s new requirements. The program would affect not only Vietnam but also other seafood exporters to the US market.

Vice Chairman of the US’s National Fisheries Institute Robert DeHann

Robert DeHann, Vice Chairman of the US’s National Fisheries Institute, said: "The US’s catfish supervision program is an attempt to create a trade barrier on behalf of a small part of US’s seafood industry. So we are seriously concerned if the program is going put in place maybe in a couple of years. That will create immediate trade ban on exports of seafood including from Vietnam. We proposed that the US government should not put the program in place. We believe that the government of Vietnam already delivered that message to the US government". 

Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Vu Van Tam, said there had not been any scientific evidence to show that the imported catfish affects US consumers.