The Great Catfish War

Double standards abound when it comes to the 'catfish war' the US is waging against Vietnam. Eager to engage an old enemy, Washington promoted the decidedly un-Marxist idea of free trade in Vietnam's Mekong Delta and helped transform it into a prime exporter of catfish. But as soon as Vietnam started profiting and Mississippi catfish farmers started losing in the competition, the former champion of free trade turned blatantly protectionist. First resorting to pseudo-science by ruling out the name 'catfish' for the Vietnamese species of the fish, US politicians then launched nasty disinformation campaigns aimed at deprecating the American catfish's competitor. Ironically, all this seemed to be forgotten when the US Department of Commerce decided that the Vietnamese import was indeed catfish and that it was imported at unfairly low prices. By labeling Vietnam as a 'non-market economy', Commerce essentially allowed for any arbitrary amount of duties on Vietnamese imports. Because the duties could be made permanent in a finding by the US International Trade Commission due out soon, many in Vietnam are increasingly resentful of the US. Criticism of these restrictions is also coming from inside Washington, however, from politicians like John McCain, who advocates changing Vietnam's communist regime by incorporating into the global free trade regime. Ultimately, says this editorial in the New York Times, America should practice what it preaches. "If not," it concludes, "Vietnam will become yet another case study in the way the United States, Europe and Japan are rigging global trade rules so they remain the only winners." – YaleGlobal