WASHINGTON, May 25, 2016 - A Senate measure
to force the USDA to stop its inspection program for domestic and imported
catfish passed a legislative hurdle Tuesday, allowing further debate and a
final vote that is scheduled for today.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., called the 57 to 40 vote “a
victory for taxpayers.”
Congress ordered the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection
Service to take over catfish inspection from the FDA in the 2008 and 2014 farm
bills - despite objections from some lawmakers that it was a waste of money.
“These overlapping, duplicative, and possibly conflicting
regulatory regimes will cost taxpayers an unnecessary $140 million,” the group
emphasized in a release.
The latest attempt comes just after the USDA blocked two
shipments of contaminated catfish imports from Vietnam.
“FSIS confirmed through laboratory testing that two
shipments of (catfish) products are violative for dyes and one of the two
shipments is also violative for enrofloxacin, a fluoroquinolone antibiotic,” an
agency spokeswoman told Agri-Pulse. “None of these chemicals are approved for
use in fish meant for human consumption and cause the fish to be
adulterated. The shipments have been refused entry to the United States.”
Supporters of USDA’s catfish inspection program like Sens.
John Boozman, R-Ark., and Thad Cochran, R-Miss., were quick to cite USDA’s action
as proof that the switch from FDA is helping to keep unsafe food out of the
U.S.
“Had this program not been in place … this violation would
not have been caught and the product would have been allowed to enter into
(U.S.) commerce,” Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan.,
said today before the vote.
While the Catfish Farmers of America are staunch supporters
of USDA’s catfish inspection program, the National Fisheries Institute warns
that it will spark retaliation from Vietnam.
“The impact of a WTO suit from Vietnam, which Vietnam would
win … would be not only an impact on an important Ag export market but (would
result in) retaliatory tariffs from that market on U.S. Ag exports,” said Gavin
Gibbons, an NFI spokesman.
Vietnam ships hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of
catfish to the U.S. every year and the country has accused the U.S. of using
stricter USDA regulations to erect an unfair trade barrier.
But Roberts also appealed to his fellow senators not to open
up the farm bill.
Farm bills, he said, take years of negotiation to craft and
should be considered an unbreakable pact with farmers.
“When a farm bill is passed, any producer of any product
expects almost as if it is a contract that they can depend on,” Roberts said. “And
so if you have a burgeoning industry of domestic catfish, you want to make
doggone sure that they are safe and we have no imports that represent a health
hazard.”
As to the extra cost – USDA spent about $30 million to set
up its catfish inspection program and expects to spend about $15 million per
year to run it – Roberts said the money was worth the results.
“One person’s wasteful money is another person’s valuable
investment,” he said.
#30
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