While largely supportive of NOAA Fisheries’ plan to expand the Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP), the Southern Shrimp Alliance is opposed to a provision that would make it easier for foreign corporations to secure import permits.
The industry group wants NOAA to restrict International Fisheries Trade Permit (IFTP) to U.S. residents and increase enforcement, a move that could close loopholes that allow foreign corporations to import seafood without meeting traceability requirements.
“For far too long, seafood importers have had free rein to do whatever they wanted. Even now, with SIMP, one importer just told the agency that ‘There is no system that you can come up with to keep people honest on snapper,’” Southern Shrimp Alliance Executive Director John Williams said in a statement. “Pervasive non-compliance with our laws should not result in NOAA Fisheries backing down. This country’s commercial fishing industry knows all too well that NOAA Fisheries enforces laws when it wants to. It is well past time to hold importers to the same standard.”
NOAA’s IFTP enforcement has been weak, the group claims, with multiple permits granted to shell companies and at least one granted to a foreign corporation with no U.S. presence.
Under the new SIMP expansion proposal, foreign corporations would be able to obtain IFTP via their resident agents. The Southern Shrimp Alliance argues that will further dilute the already weak IFTP requirements.
However, the Southern Shrimp Alliance does support NOAA Fisheries’ plan to expand SIMP coverage to more species. Illegal harvests of snapper – one of the species to be added to SIMP – “presents a direct threat” to U.S. commercial shrimp operations, the group claims.