Case
4: Swimming with Agreement
::
THE CATFISH DISPUTE
Background:
Do you know catfish?... It is a type
of fish which has think-skinned, whiskered and wide mouthed, it grew in muddy
water, and it has strong smell, a lot of bone, and muddy. In the U.S., they
called wild cat fish. Due to a developing of technology in farm, wild Cat fish
is one of the U.S. aquaculture products that turned to be one of top three favorable
dishes in restaurant, and it could reach to 4 billion dollar for sale in 2000.
As Wild Cat fish is popular in U.S., other countries such as Vietnam and
Australia interested to export their product to sell in U.S. market.
Especially, Vietnam’s cat fishes that for some reasons, it turned out to be a
problem for U.S. cat fish market.
Problem:
The main problem is the prices of
U.S. catfish had dropped to 50 cents, and it was continuing to drop since 2001.
U.S cat fish producers said it was because of Vietnamese Cat fish. For Vietnam
side, they said it was because of U.S. fault that they sold only some states.
The dispute as follow caused
American Cat fish farmer to FDA (The Food and Drug Administration) and Congress
to help them with labeling, and it made catfish to sell if they are from Ictularidae
family. As a result, Vietnam changed their catfish to be called “basa” or “tra”,
and it turned out to increase sell in Vietnam fish.
To protect themselves, the catfish
farmers of American requested for import tariffs, which it made American
consumer preferred fish less from Vietnam, since it was too high to pay for
payment.
Theories:
According to Walton (2004), “Since the
end of the Vietnam War, relations between the United States and Vietnam have
been largely based on trade, causing both cooperation and conflict”. The
relationship through trade made international business between USA and Vietnam
both import and export products. Since, some products may similar to each
other, and it caused a problem between them.
According to Drahos (2005), “The
rule orientation of bilateral dispute resolution is more likely to prove to be
a weapon of the powerful than it is a protector of the trade interests of
weaker actors.” From the U.S. Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement, it made U.S.
used the advantage to argument about the type of fish and the tariff from
import fish from Vietnam.
Conclusion:
Doing business or trade with other
countries, you need to sign the agreement with that country even two or more
countries. The conflict and argument can be happen through the benefit of each
country, you who prefer to do international business or international trade
must be prepare for that situation, and use the benefit of agreement to fight
or protect your trade. Therefore, you who prefer to do international business
or international business should be considerate with your agreement and use it
wisely.
References:
Walton, Amalia R. CATFISH
WARS: VIETNAM'S FIGHT FOR FREE TRADE IN THE U.S. COURT OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE:
Pacific Rim Law & Policy Journal Association. 2004. Print.
Drahos, Peter.
The Bilateral Web of Trade Dispute Settlement.: Australian National University. 2005. Print.
Czinkota, Michael R. International
Business Eight Edition: John Wiley & Sones, Inc. 2011. Print.
