Letter to the Hon. Sonny Perdue, Secretary of Agriculture - Delay Implementation of Catfish Inspection Program

Letter

Dear Secretary Perdue:

I write to urge you to delay the implementation of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Catfish Inspection Program and begin work to return all catfish inspections to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

As you know, responsibility for inspecting catfish products was removed from the FDA, an agency that inspects all other seafood products, and transferred to the USDA under an obscure 2008 Farm Bill provision that was airdropped into conference negotiations. The new inspection program is formally scheduled to take effect next month‎. The Government Accountability Office (GAO), the FDA, and the USDA are all on record stating that there is no legitimate food safety concern with catfish imports. The true purpose of the Catfish Inspection Program is to erect a trade barrier against Asian catfish imports at the command of a handful of domestic catfish farmers in southern states.

This special-interest effort to disassemble FDA's jurisdiction has created a series of unintended and unwanted complications that cannot be solved through rulemaking or guidance. The GAO has warned in 10 different reports that the Catfish Inspection Program is "wasteful and duplicative" and "further fragments our food safety system." Higher food prices resulting from the USDA inspection program will endanger over 500,000 American jobs that directly rely on imported seafood, as domestic fisheries cannot produce enough sustainable seafood to meet the needs of American consumers. Lawmakers from Florida and Maryland have raised concerns to you about the duplicative inspections, asking that American wild-caught catfish be exempt from the inspections. At least one Asian trading partner, Vietnam, has threatened to file a legal challenge with the World Trade Organization (WTO), which could result in retaliation on American beef, soy, and poultry producers. Finally, the cost of operating the new USDA program is estimated to be about $14 million a year, even though the President's Budget for FY2018 proposed to eliminate it. Budget analysts note that American taxpayers could actually save $2.5 million by transferring the program back to the FDA.

This wasteful program is a classic example of shortsighted, anti-free market protectionism at its worst. I request that you delay implementation of the USDA Catfish Inspection Program until Congress has an opportunity to reverse this duplicative, wasteful program.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

John McCain

United States Senator

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