Vietnam to limit catfish exports

Vietnam to limit catfish exports

HANOI: Vietnamese catfish producers, accused of dumping low-cost fish on the U.S. market, have offered unilaterally to limit volumes exported to the U.S. in a bid to resolve the ongoing dispute, they said on Friday.

The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), facing heavy duties in the United States for several weeks, has proposed to limit 2003 catfish exports at 90 percent of 2002 volumes.

"95 percent would be exported in 2004, 100 percent in 2005. No export limitation would be applicable after 2005," VASEP said in its offer, detailed in a press release.

The U.S. embassy in Hanoi declined to make any comment.

The row was sparked in 2002 by complaints from U.S. companies accusing their Vietnamese counterparts of gaining 20 percent of the U.S. catfish market by flooding it with cheap frozen fish.

In response, Hanoi accused the United States of protectionism. -- AFP