FTC renews tariff against Asian crawfish

Louisiana's crawfish industry is celebrating another five years of an anti-dumping tariff on Chinese crawfish tail meat.

The U.S. International Trade Commission voted unanimously last week to keep the tariff, a move that officials say spares the industry.

"We won!" said a jubilant state agriculture commissioner Bob Odom.

The 4-0 ITC ruling was made at the commission meeting in Washington, D.C. Tariffs were imposed after the U.S. Department of Commerce ruled in September 1997 that Chinese meat tails were dumped on the United States.

Odom told the commission on June 2 that Louisiana crawfish farmers and processors needed the tariff to keep cheap imports from flooding domestic markets.

"Without this positive vote, the Louisiana crawfish industry would have been dead in the water," Odom said.

U.S. Sen. John Breaux, D-La., who also urged the ITC to keep the antidumping order, hailed the decision, saying the "unfair trade practice ... hurts our local communities."

Mike Bernstein, spokesman for Darden Restaurants Inc. in Orlando, Fla., said not enough crawfish is produced domestically for Darden's use.

"This decision hurts the American consumer," Bernstein said.

Bernstein said Darden purchases 1 million pounds of frozen crawfish tails from China for its 1,270 chain stores consisting of Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Bahama Breeze and Smokey Bones restaurants.

In Louisiana, though, the news was met with cheers.

"It's such a small part of the U.S. economy. But in South Louisiana, it's almost like Christmas in other areas," said Dexter Guillory, a crawfish farmer and processor, who represents the Louisiana Crawfish Farmers Association on the Louisiana Seafood Promotion Board.

The total economic impact of Louisiana crawfish is estimated to be more than $100 million. But in recent years, the crawfish industry in Louisiana has eroded.

In 1996, there were about 80 crawfish processors in Louisiana, but that number is now down to as few as 24, according to John Steinberger, a lawyer working for the Agriculture Department.