Comments on: Chicken of the Sea http://www.thebchand.com/thebchand/?p=883 Random Gibberish from a Brother on the Road in China Fri, 04 Jun 2010 03:06:41 +0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9-beta-2 hourly 1 By: China Law Blog http://www.thebchand.com/thebchand/?p=883&cpage=1#comment-22075 China Law Blog Mon, 21 May 2007 00:23:58 +0000 http://www.thebchand.com/thebchand/?p=883#comment-22075 With respect to seafood, it is so political it isn't even funny. I am going to have to be somewhat careful here since my firm represents a number of large seafood importers, but much of what is going on is a complete joke. You've got some politcally minded yahoo (so much for my being careful here) down in Alabama who is so deep into the Alabama seafood coalition.... (my ending the sentence here is my way of being careful) and who is saying things that I view (note this is my opinion only and may or may not be based on facts) as racist and xenophobic. Then we have the FBI out there (or so I have been told) reminding importers that China and Vietnam are communist and that these are not the kinds of countries with which we should be dealing. It's a bad situation made far worse by a politically savvy domestic industry (cartel?). Don't even get me started. . . . The problem is that the importers are not united and they very much want to stay under the radar on these issues because they do not want the public to know how incredibly much fish is imported. My firm did a case where we were the lawyers acting as amicus curie for the seafood industry trying to help out an importer who had nearly $2 million in crab seized for purportedly illegal fishing. The laws on this favor the domestic industry but we lost. I am hugely proud to be an American, but the way we have acted in these issues makes me ashamed. I am impressed you are writing about this because for the most part it is ignored. With respect to seafood, it is so political it isn’t even funny. I am going to have to be somewhat careful here since my firm represents a number of large seafood importers, but much of what is going on is a complete joke. You’ve got some politcally minded yahoo (so much for my being careful here) down in Alabama who is so deep into the Alabama seafood coalition…. (my ending the sentence here is my way of being careful) and who is saying things that I view (note this is my opinion only and may or may not be based on facts) as racist and xenophobic. Then we have the FBI out there (or so I have been told) reminding importers that China and Vietnam are communist and that these are not the kinds of countries with which we should be dealing. It’s a bad situation made far worse by a politically savvy domestic industry (cartel?). Don’t even get me started. . . .

The problem is that the importers are not united and they very much want to stay under the radar on these issues because they do not want the public to know how incredibly much fish is imported. My firm did a case where we were the lawyers acting as amicus curie for the seafood industry trying to help out an importer who had nearly $2 million in crab seized for purportedly illegal fishing. The laws on this favor the domestic industry but we lost.

I am hugely proud to be an American, but the way we have acted in these issues makes me ashamed.

I am impressed you are writing about this because for the most part it is ignored.

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