Congressman Carter, Higgins Request Section 301 Investigation into Unfair Seafood Trade Practices Harming American Fishermen

WASHINGTON, D.C. - This week, Congressmen Troy A. Carter, Sr. (D-LA) and Clay Higgins (R-LA) sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer urging a Section 301 investigation into unfair practices harming the American seafood industry.

Our fishermen have long played a crucial role in the Louisiana economy and culture, providing jobs, supporting coastal communities, and ensuring a reliable domestic seafood supply. Louisiana's shrimp industry has led the United States in shrimp production, averaging about 100 million pounds in annual landings and accounting for nearly 50% of Gulf shrimp landings over the past 25 years. However, the ongoing influx of unfairly subsidized, low-cost imported shrimp has placed this industry in an untenable position. Foreign seafood companies have also been documented to engage in labor abuses and false labeling, among other issues. All of this has contributed to a significant decline in the domestic seafood industry. A Section 301 investigation offers an important tool for correcting trade imbalances and ensuring fair competition across the seafood sector.

"Consistent with the Executive Order and your stated intent, we respectfully request that the Office of the United States Trade Representative ("USTR") initiate a broad Section 301 investigation into unfair acts, policies, and practices affecting trade in seafood and seafood products," the Members wrote. "A Section 301 investigation encompassing a broad spectrum of unfair practices, including false labeling and species designations, the abuse of banned antibiotics and fungicides in aquaculture, export and production subsidies, environmental harm, structural excess capacity, labor abuses, and permissive standards with respect to gear usage, would allow the Administration to effectively leverage access to our market to improve conditions overseas and level the playing field for the American seafood industry within its own domestic market."

"Because of the breadth and complexity of these challenges, we encourage the USTR to pursue a seafood-specific Section 301 investigation that examines all unfair acts, policies, and practices across the full seafood supply chain from countries including, but not limited to: Argentina, Canada, Chile, China, Ecuador, Egypt, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Spain, Thailand, and Vietnam, " the Members continued.

The letter is endorsed by many seafood industry associations, including the Catfish Farmers of America, Southern Shrimp Alliance, California Sea Urchin Commission, North American Marine Alliance, Oregon Trawl Commission, Hawaii Longline Association, Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation, North Carolina Fisheries Association, California Pelagic Fisheries Association, Fishing Communities Coalition, Chesapeake Bay Seafood Industries Association, Alabama Farmers Federation, and the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation.

"Time and again I hear from Louisiana Farm Bureau members who have a simple request of their lawmakers: help us do business on a level playing field. Congressmen Carter and Congressman Higgins clearly have heard that plea and are raising their voices for us in a big way. We appreciate them calling on USTR to initiate a Section 301 investigation on seafood and we join them in this request to give our crawfish farmers, shrimpers, and other seafood producers a fighting chance," said Richard Fontenot, President of Louisiana Farm Bureau.

"The U.S. shrimp industry is grateful to Congressmen Clay Higgins and Troy Carter for spearheading a Congressional request to the United States Trade Representative to launch a Section 301 investigation - one that can comprehensively address the unfair acts, policies, and practices harming American seafood producers. We ask the Trump Administration to seize this opportunity to address unfair trade practices, eliminate unsafe imports, and level the longstanding unfair playing field for American producers. Under fair market conditions, American shrimpers can sustainably harvest tens of millions of additional pounds of shrimp each year - preserving a way of life for fishing families and boosting coastal economies from Texas to North Carolina," said Blake Price, Director of the Southern Shrimp Alliance.

Read the full letter here.

Background

Congressman Carter and Congressman Higgins are authors of the bipartisan Destruction of Hazardous Imports Act, which grants the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) additional authority to order the destruction of foreign products that fail health inspections at import facilities, ensuring that contaminated, unsafe, and mislabeled seafood imports do not harm American consumers.

In March 2025, Congressman Carter and a bipartisan coalition of Gulf representatives introduced the Save Our Shrimpers Act of 2025, which passed the House on May 12, 2026. This bill requires U.S. representatives to the International Monetary Fund, World Bank Group, and other international financial institutions to oppose financial assistance to foreign countries for projects that support shrimp farming, processing, or exporting of shrimp from any foreign country to the United States.

Congressman Carter is also an original co-sponsor of the Safer Shrimp Imports Act, which would require foreign shrimp producers to meet the standards that domestic producers face before exporting their shrimp to U.S. markets.

Last year, Congressman Carter sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Jameison Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick outlining his concerns about harms inflicted on the U.S. domestic shrimp industry due to unfair trade practices and non-reciprocal trade agreements.

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