Vietnam seafood body protests sales ban in US southern states

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2005

HANOI (AFP) — Vietnam's seafood industry body protested against the decision of some southern US states to suspend the sale of Vietnamese basa catfish fillet products citing the presence of an antibiotic.

The states were reported to have taken the action after some samples of the farmed product imported from Vietnam were found to contain a kind of antibiotic of the fluoroquinolones group.

But the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) deemed it unfair, arguing that the detection of the substance, "are just particular cases, thus it shouldn't be implicated for all Vietnamese seafood."

VASEP officials would not say what the impact of the action by Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana would be on the trade.

In the past Vietnamese...