price, imports, tariffs

U.S. shrimp producers are trying to stop the onslaught of imported foreign shrimp by giving U.S. caught seafood a personality. Florida shrimp has "a distinctive Florida taste," while imported fish has an "iodine-y aftertaste."

U.S. shrimp producers have seen their price fall by 41% as imports have increased by 70%. Arguing that foreign imports are being dumped in the U.S. at below cost, domestic shrimpers convinced the Bush administration this year to impose tariffs as high as 67% on shrimp from Brazil, Thailand, Ecuador and India. Recently, higher tariffs were imposed on shrimp from China and Vietnam because of the surge in imports from those countries.

Domestic shrimpers are arguing that U.S. shrimp simply tastes better than imported shrimp. U.S. shrimpers and restaurant chefs argue that if the farming practices in developing countries result in erosion of the land on which the shrimp are farmed, the resulting shrimp will taste "swampy."

(Updated October, 2004)