[7] With the increasing number of catfish imported from Vietnam, U.S. domestic producers began to worry about their profit margins.
The U.S. Senate favored this claim and passed a law implemented by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to require all Vietnamese catfish to be labeled either "Tra" or "Basa".
This action aimed to provide customers with more accurate and verifiable choice between foreign and domestically grown catfish.
In addition, the CFA ran an ad that encouraged American consumers not to trust foreign catfish because of their breeding origin.
[13] The controversial action of food labeling claims posed a question whether this act aimed to protect consumers or to form a protectionism barrier against Vietnamese catfish.
[4] In 2008, the U.S. producers decided to lobby for another barrier to keep Vietnamese catfish out of the domestic market by propose an inspection requirement into the 2008 farm bill.
In April 2003, the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers[17] (VASEP) agreed to cut shipment volumes from 2003 to 2005, with penalties for exceeding quota.
[18] One of the largest export products of Vietnam was restricted by a series of trade barriers to protect domestic producers, particularly, the CFA in this case.
[20] With the additional costs of labels and adopting the new inspection system, domestic producers are considering to eliminate catfish from their productions.
Consumers now will bear the costs of the label process as well as the USDA inspection requirement on each pound of catfish that they buy from domestic producers.
Experts even predict that the action against foreign producers would force consumers to buy more Vietnamese catfish[citation needed].