It’s raining cat(fish) and dogs

Folks, have you heard of the Beagle Brigade?

I’m not talking about Snoopy and the Charlie Brown gang. This is group of canines sniffs out illegal agricultural products at U.S. ports of entry.

The pups are trained at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Detector Dog Training Center in Newnan, Georgia. They play a big part in keeping out pests and diseases that could cause widespread damage to the U.S. animal agriculture system.

One canine in particular, Hardy, recently garnered national attention by uncovering a roasted pig head in luggage at the Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

Amid recent confirmations of African Swine Fever in China and the European Union, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Customs and Border Protection have stepped up their game to increase security.

“African Swine Fever is a devastating, deadly disease affecting all kinds of pigs, both domestic and wild—and keeping our pork industry safe is a top priority,” said U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue.

“Because there’s no treatment or vaccine available for this disease, we must work together to prevent this disease from entering the United States in order to best protect our farmers, our consumers and our natural resources,” Perdue continued.

Now, let’s switch gears to another animal that’s in the headlines: catfish.

This week, a bipartisan group of eight U.S. senators from southern states wrote to U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross regarding cheap Vietnamese catfish imports that have long flooded the U.S. These imports are a constant thorn in the side of U.S. catfish producers, mainly located in southern states.

The gang includes Sens. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-MS, Richard Shelby, R-AL, Roger Wicker, R-MS, John Boozman, R-AR, Bill Cassidy, R-LA, Tom Cotton, R-AR, John Kennedy, R-LA, and Doug Jones, D-AL.

The senators are calling out and calling on the Department of Commerce. They are calling out the department for “deferential actions” toward a large Vietnamese catfish exporter, and they are calling on the department to implement anti-dumping duties on imported Vietnamese catfish.

“We are troubled by this series of events, as in recent years commerce has consistently found significant dumping by Vietnamese fish fillet exporters, and has determined repeatedly that many exporters have been uncooperative in responding to the department’s questionnaires,” the senators said. “Our catfish farmers rely on strong enforcement of U.S. antidumping laws to ensure they can compete on a level playing field.”

According to Sen. Hyde-Smith, the International Trade Administration (within the commerce department) since 2003 has found that Vietnamese frozen catfish have been sold in America at less than fair market value, financially harming American catfish producers.

The senators contend that the commerce department gave the Vietnamese exporter a second chance to file data after it failed to answer these claims the first time.

This is not the first time this call to action has sounded. For more than 10 years, groups have taken lobbying and legal actions to rectify this situation. Time will tell if this action will finally have any impact.

Editor’s note: Seymour Klierly writes Washington Whispers for the Journal from inside the Beltway.