Let's Make a Deal
Early this week, a powerful faction of the U.S. wild shrimping industry decided to cut a deal with their traditional foes in Ecuador. After fighting for years against cheap (often below cost) imports of tropical shrimp, the SSA broke free from a larger coalition of domestic shrimpers to accept direct compensation from the Ecuadorian shrimp company NIRSA. In exchange for sending 2% of their profits north to the SSA, the SSA has agreed to remove NIRSA from a list of importers thought to be dumping shrimp in the US market.
So, not only is NIRSA off the hook for dumping, but once again a foreign multinational has managed to buy its way out of playing by the rules. As a result, consumers and the environment will be left footing the bill for increased imports of cheap, farmed shrimp, often contaminated with illegal drugs and chemicals and complicit in the destruction of our vital estuary and mangrove forests.
What sounds like a good deal for big business, doesn’t sound like such a good deal for the rest of us.
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