The Catfish farmers of America  (CFA)  has succeeded in preventing Vietnamese exporters from labeling their tra and basa catfish. CFA’ s aim in this labeling ban is quite apparent – that  is  to slash the import of  Vietnamese  catfish   to  America   to   protect   U.S. catfish  farmers.  Unexpectedly,  however,  the CFA-waged war against "the rampant mislabeling of Vietnamese basa fish"  has  made Vietnamese fish more famous on the U.S. market, and the volume of fish shipments from Vietnam did  not  decline. CFA recently took a lawsuit against what they called "Vietnamese fish price dumping".

Vietnamese seafood exports to Europe are also facing similar trade barriers. Late last year,  41 batches of  Vietnamese  seafood   were  detained  at  EU ports,  claimed  by  EU  authorities  to have excessive chloramphenicol residue.

In reality, Vietnamese seafood exporters did not violate EU regulations  on the chloramphenicol content. It was a EU abrupt change that drove Vietnamese exporters helpless.

According to Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Fisheries Nguyen Thi Hong Minh,  before August 2001, the EU accepted an excessive amount of 1.5 ppb gram. EU officials changed their mind later,  allowing only chloramphenicol - free  shipments.  After strong  protests  by  the  Vietnamese  side,  the EU agreed on seafood imports  with  chloramphenicol  residue of  less than 0.3 ppb gram.  Explaining this change, EU Ambassador  to  Vietnam  Frederic Baron  says  EU authorities  imposed this rule as requested by their citizens.

In fact,  both  the antibiotic issue  and  the  labeling  ban  are  merely  technical  barriers erected by rich countries  to  put  a cap  on imports  from  other  nations.  If  CFA  fails  in its legal proceedings against Vietnamese seafood exporters, it will resort to other measures to curb fish imports from Vietnam. A sign of this is that U.S. officials have begun to inspect the antibiotic residue of seafood imports.

Another  Vietnamese  government  official,  Deputy  Trade  Minister  Mai  Van Dau,  warns  Vietnamese exporters  that  they  should  be prepared for trade wars that will be  waged against them more often. He says government  authorities  have not  only  employed  technical  barriers  or  WTO-set  regulations  to restrict Vietnamese-made goods, but have also used undeclared measures. He says importers  in some countries  have  been  told  to  reduce  import  volume  of  Vietnamese  cotton  towels.  " We’ve strongly protested this practice," says Dau.

Although  not  yet  widespread,  trade  wars  between  Vietnam  and  other countries have posed various issues for local businesses and government agencies.

First, Vietnamese businesses have to quickly master standards of  quality,  hygiene,  environment,  and labor conditions set by importing countries.  Several  Vietnamese  garment producers have failed to sign contracts simply because they were unable to meet requirements for factories and working environment.

In addition, Vietnamese companies should seek new trading partners  to  diversify  their export markets. Currently, Vietnam’s major export industries are relying heavily on a handful of markets such as the EU, Japan and the U.S. This over dependence is unfavorable.  Any  change  that  destabilizes  one of  these markets would be harmful to the Vietnam’s export.

On  their  part,  Vietnamese  government  agencies  must  be  more  responsive  to  new situations.  As Vietnam  has  yet  to  be  considered  as  a market  economy,  CFA  claimed that tra and basa fish are subsidized  by  the  Vietnamese Government.  Instead of  conducting  and  inspection to know the truth, U.S. authorities may impose production costs in a third country  on  Vietnamese products.  This can be very unfavorable  to Vietnamese fish exporters  because  the  prices  are  likely to be significantly higher than the actual costs in Vietnam.

If  the  State  had  been  more active in negotiation so that Vietnam could be recognized as  " a  market economy, "    legal   disputes   over   price   dumping   could   have  been  avoided,   argue  some  local businesspeople.

In April,  Vietnam  wrote to the European Commission pledging strong action against chloramphenicol contamination in  export seafood.  Recently, some markets such as Canada and the U.S. have begun lowering their chloramphenicol residue levels for Vietnamese seafood.