Following the release of NOAA's 2023 Report to Congress on Improving International Fisheries Management, which found that the PRC had failed to take corrective actions to address U.S. concerns, Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, alongside a group of bipartisan lawmakers, wrote to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Administrator Richard Spinrad, urging him to take immediate action against illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) Chinese fishing fleets that operate globally.
China is the world's largest processor and exporter of seafood products to the United States. Operating with an estimated 17,000-vessel fleet, Chinese ships accounted for more than a third of all global deepwater fishing, where they bear responsibility for depleting a majority of fisheries off the coasts of South America and Africa.
NOAA's 2023 report on international fisheries revealed that Chinese IUU fishing imperiled the global ocean ecosystem and also identified widespread use of forced labor on deep water fishing fleets around the world. A report in The New Yorker this week documented the role of forced labor in the Chinese fish processing industry.
In the letter, the lawmakers write, "Urgent action is needed. Past approaches to combatting IUU fishing by the PRC and efforts to stop forced labor have been insufficient, putting our fisherman and seafood producers at a competitive disadvantage, damaging marine ecosystems, and implicating U.S. consumers in forced labor."
After NOAA's determination of the environmental degradation and the extensive use of forced labor on Chinese fishing fleets, the lawmakers request that NOAA enact trade restrictions that bar tainted Chinese seafood products from entering the United States.
"We request that NOAA strongly consider enforcing trade restrictions against the PRC on specific seafood products tainted by forced labor if the PRC continues to refuse to take corrective action within 90 days after bilateral consultations begin."
The letter was also signed by Rep. Rob Wittman, (R-VA), Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA), Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL), Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI), Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), Rep. Darin LaHood (R-IL), Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA), Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL), and Rep. Scott Peters (D-CA).
Aoming the signers of the letter, only Mr. Moulton has a fisheries constituency (Mr. Newhouse represents Washington's Yakima Valley). The letter neglected to address the reliance of the US seafood industry on offshore processing plants (often in China) which would be impacted by such measures.
Click HERE to view a copy of the letter
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