Crawford: Commerce Department Ruling Will Reverse US Catfish Industry Decline

For years, the Commerce Department has been unfairly assigning a near-zero antidumping duty on Vietnamese Catfish, which has led to unfair competition, and a flood of Vietnamese imports.

Since 2008, Vietnamese imports of catfish fillets have tripled, and have taken nearly 80 per cent of the domestic market.

The Department decided to switch from a Bangladeshi surrogate value to Indonesian price index for calculation of antidumping duties.

In a February 5, 2013 letter to the Commerce Department, Crawford urged that: "The Department turn to the Philippines or Indonesia for determining the surrogate value because each of these countries is qualified and has better data available..."

Congressman Crawford issued the following statement after hearing the welcome news: "For too long, the Arkansas catfish industry has faced unfair competition from non-market economies, such as Vietnam.

"I am pleased to hear that the Commerce Department heeded my call to assign a fairer price calculation to the value of Vietnamese Catfish. This is a win for the US Catfish industry and the Delta region in the First District of Arkansas.

"I am confident that the Commerce Department"s decision to fairly enforce our trade laws is a great first step towards a US catfish industry recovery that will create jobs and grow the Delta economy."