[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 116 (Monday, September 10, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1613]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  APPROVING EXTENSION OF NON-DISCRIMINATORY TREATMENT WITH RESPECT TO 
             PRODUCTS OF THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                             HON. BOB RILEY

                               of alabama

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 6, 2001

  Mr. RILEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise to bring attention to an increasingly 
serious problem affecting the public trust and truth in advertising. 
Today as we debate H.J. Res. 51, to approve the extension of 
nondiscriminatory treatment with respect to the products of the 
Socialist Republic of Vietnam, I wish to make my colleagues in the 
House aware of the misleading marketing of the Vietnamese basa fish as 
catfish.
  Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana farmers who endured, 
and continue to endure, the significant capital risk and time 
investment to raise catfish--notice I use the term catfish--should not 
be made to compete with a foreign product bearing no similarity to 
North American catfish. Vietnamese Pangasius, also known as the basa 
fish, has flooded the American market and now accounts for 20% of all 
catfish sold in the United States. This basa fish, however, is not 
catfish yet it is labeled catfish and even bears the industry logo.
  American catfish farmers, who have worked for over a quarter of a 
century and spent half a billion dollars in research and development, 
deserve better. They deserve the assurance that their government will 
take the steps necessary to ensure their product retains the public 
trust and is not compromised in any way. Similarly, when a consumer 
purchases catfish they have the right to expect they are purchasing 
grain-fed, pond-raised North American freshwater catfish. The basa 
fish, however, is not grainfed, nor pond-raised, neither is it the 
American species.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask that my colleagues carefully consider the 
erroneous marketing of basa fish before reaching any decision on 
extending nondiscriminatory treatment to the products of Vietnam.

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