Nguyen Phuong Dung _ KT36C 00716
TRA AND BASA FISH DISPUTE BETWEEN VIETNAM AND THE US
I. Overview about Vietnam maritime production
1. Globalization of Vietnam catfish production industry
Since Vietnam integrate international economic and accept international commercial principles, especially Vietnam joined Asia Pacific Economics cooperation, Vietnam Tra and basa fish grow dramatically.
Vietnam has succeeded in the implementation of synthetic species planting on Tra and basa fish as well as technique of white Tra growing. This is a great comparative advantage of Vietnam.
The United States took off the trade embargo to Vietnam and after that, US and Vietnam signed bilateral trade agreement in December, 2001. Thus, the tariff barrier erected to the seafood products has been eradicated to nearly zero level. The exact number is 4.4 cent per kilogam, which is applied to cat-fish import duty into US.
( With those facilities, export volumes of Tra and basa to the US have increased fastly over a short period of time. In 1998, there are 200 tons Tra and basa were exported to the US and after 4 year since participating APEC, this number is 20.000 tons.
2. Tra Fish and Basa Fish
❖ American catfish consists of two kinds: channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) and blue catfish (Ictalurus furcatus), which belong to Ictaluridae. It is usually planted in static water pond in some states as Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana. Channel fish planting and processing is one of the largest seafood industry of the United States. ❖ Vietnamese catfish consists of two kinds: Tra (Pangasius pangasius) and Basa (Pangasius bocourti), which belong to Pangasidae. Their features and tastes are similar to those of American channel fish but their prices are much lower. Tra and Basa are becoming threats to channel fish planting and processing in the United States as 90% of