USDA proposes clearance for catfish from Vietnam, China and Thailand

The Food Safety and Inspection Service plans to publish a Federal Register notice formally designating China, Vietnam and Thailand as eligible countries to export catfish and catfish products to the U.S. FSIS said it determined that the inspection system in each country was “equivalent to the system that the United States has established under the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA) and its implementing regulations.” Congress included provisions in both the 2004 and 2008 farm bills transferring catfish inspection to the USDA, from the FDA. FSIS published a final rule in Dec. 2015 that created a transitional mechanism for trade to continue while it determined whether China, Vietnam and Thailand’s inspection systems are equivalent to the U.S. system.