One Rigged System
Two Layers of Advocacy for American Shrimpers
PAASA and SSA are independent organizations whose work reinforces one another — and together they reveal why enforcement gaps persist even when both layers are active.
“Protecting the domestic shrimp industry requires involvement at every level. Local and state organizations keep their communities’ concerns front and center, while SSA brings those concerns together into a stronger, more consistent national voice through trade enforcement, federal lobbying, and broader policy work.”
— Deborah Long, Southern Shrimp Alliance
The Battle
An Industry Rigged to Fail
Three Traps. One Rigged System.
A generation ago, U.S. shrimpers supplied more than half of America’s shrimp. Today, less than 5%. They follow the strictest rules, compete against imports the FDA barely inspects, and fund their own replacement with tax dollars sent to foreign shrimp farms.
The bills that would fix it — the Destruction of Hazardous Imports Act, the LABEL Act, and five others — have bipartisan support, FDA endorsement, and zero final passage votes.
View all 7 bills with sources ↓
Media Coverage
Food Safety & Industry Advocacy
Two Independent Organizations. One Shared Fight.
Their work complements and depends on one another.
PAASA
Local & State
Port Arthur Area Shrimpers Association. Founded 2000. $50/year dues. Gives a voice to professional fishermen in SE Texas.
In-person meetings with shrimpers, CPR and safety training, equipment checks
Tracks local, state, and federal shrimping issues directly for members
Phone calls, emails, texts to legislators — the ground-level pipeline to Austin and Washington
Occasional trips to the state capital and workshops along the Gulf Coast
SSA
National & Federal
Southern Shrimp Alliance. Founded 2002 across 8 states. The industry’s primary voice on trade enforcement, federal lobbying, and consumer education.
Filed and won the original 2004 AD petition against six countries — the foundation of every shrimp trade remedy since
Exposed and closed the “Dusted Shrimp” loophole; documents transshipment plots and non-market distortions (details below)
Publishes monthly FDA antibiotic refusal reports; builds the evidence base Congress and agencies rely on
Hires professional lobbyists; forms coalitions with other food and seafood industries at the federal level
How they reinforce each other: SSA needs the ground-truth testimony only local organizations like PAASA can provide. PAASA needs the legal infrastructure, D.C. access, and professional lobbyists that SSA’s larger budget makes possible.
“When one shrimper does well, the whole industry benefits.” — Tricia Kimball, PAASA Vice President
State Wins & Federal Access
PAASA helped pass Texas SB 823, which prohibits mislabeling imported shrimp as “Texas,” “Gulf,” “American,” or “Domestic” and requires disclosure if shrimp is imported. A concrete state-level win that federal legislation has not yet achieved.
PAASA advanced HCR 76, urging the federal government to curb mass foreign shrimp imports to protect the Gulf Coast shrimping industry and consumers. Sent directly to the President, NOAA, and the Department of Commerce.
Tricia and Kyle Kimball participated in a Seafood Roundtable in Washington, D.C. at USDA, hosted by Secretary Brooke Rollins, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and NEC Director Kevin Hassett — alongside representatives and senators from seafood-harvesting states.
Follow-up Zoom meetings with Brooke Rollins, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Dr. Ben Carson, and Mike Illenberg (Director of the Office of Seafood) to discuss ongoing seafood industry issues. A $50/year local shrimpers’ association sitting across the table from Cabinet secretaries — because the ground-truth testimony they carry is irreplaceable.
The Evasion Playbook SSA Has Exposed
A decades-long cat-and-mouse game where foreign exporters and importers of record use sophisticated schemes to evade trade duties.
Exporters lightly coated shrimp in flour to reclassify it as a “prepared meal,” arguing it fell outside the scope of the 2004 AD orders. SSA fought to have dusted shrimp included in the orders, closing the loophole and preventing mass duty evasion.
Foreign producers — particularly from China — route shrimp through third-party countries to “wash” its origin, mislabeling it as coming from nations with lower or zero duty rates. These plots also circumvent food safety and forced labor enforcement.
Foreign governments provide export-processing zones, subsidies, and lax environmental regulations (including mangrove deforestation) to artificially lower production costs. The IFC has funded hundreds of millions in foreign aquaculture development — creating a global oversupply.
“Systemic evasion undermines trade remedies” — SSA has documented these patterns for over two decades across eight states.
The Quality Trap
Clean Shrimp, No Credit. Dirty Imports, No Inspection.
U.S. shrimpers harvest wild-caught Gulf shrimp under one of the most heavily regulated commercial fisheries in the world. Their foreign competition is largely farm-raised — often with antibiotics banned in U.S. food production — and barely inspected at the border.
The Quality Trap
Clean Shrimp, No Credit. Dirty Imports, No Inspection.
U.S. shrimpers harvest wild-caught Gulf shrimp under one of the most heavily regulated commercial fisheries in the world. Their foreign competition is largely farm-raised — often with antibiotics banned in U.S. food production — and barely inspected at the border.
The Standards American Shrimpers Meet
- •American shrimpers pull Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs) and Bycatch Reduction Devices (BRDs) — required by federal law since 1989.
- •Commercial fishing is among the most heavily regulated industries in the United States, with overlapping federal, state, and international rules.
- •Domestic shrimp is inspected dockside by federal inspectors at a much higher rate than imports.
- •Two-month seasonal closures to allow shrimp stocks to reproduce.
The Imports That Skip Those Standards
- •Farm-raised shrimp constituted almost 96% of shrimp imports for which a farmed-or-wild-caught distinction was recorded in 2023 (NOAA).
- •India “has never received a certification from the U.S. Department of State under the Section 609 program” — yet Indian wild-caught shrimp entered U.S. markets for decades because CBP “has not fully checked for the certifications as they should have for about 3 decades.”
- •Foreign farms operate in unfiltered ponds where shrimp are tightly packed, leading to bacterial or viral infections treated with antibiotics illegal in the U.S.
The Inspection Gap at the Border
- •The FDA tests between 0.1% and 1% of imported shrimp containers (see comparison below).
- •2024 saw the most shrimp refusals for banned antibiotics since 2016 — 79 shipments refused.
- •August 2025: radioactive shrimp (Cesium-137) reached U.S. supermarket shelves and was identified only after the product was already in consumer hands.
Market of Last Resort — How Other Countries Respond
“All markets agree the contamination is real. The difference is whether governments act on it.” — SSA
Port Shopping
- •When the FDA refuses a contaminated shipment, the importer can re-export it to another port and try again. The Destruction of Hazardous Imports Act (DHIA) would end this practice.
The Taxpayer Trap
They Fund Their Own Replacement.
The World Bank's IFC uses U.S.-contributed taxpayer funds to finance foreign shrimp farms — the same farms whose product then enters the U.S. and undercuts American shrimpers. Meanwhile, the average federal Gulf shrimp vessel is 34 years old.
The Taxpayer Trap
They Fund Their Own Replacement.
The World Bank's IFC uses U.S.-contributed taxpayer funds to finance foreign shrimp farms — the same farms whose product then enters the U.S. and undercuts American shrimpers. Meanwhile, the average federal Gulf shrimp vessel is 34 years old.
U.S. Tax Dollars Funding Foreign Shrimp Farms
- •The IFC uses U.S.-contributed funds to finance foreign shrimp farms, making their product cheaper while U.S. shrimpers pay full domestic costs.
- •The Save Our Shrimpers Act would end this practice; it passed the House 391–18 and awaits Senate action.
The Aging American Fleet
- •NOAA’s March 2026 economic assessment: “The average age of vessels in the federal fleet is 34 years (built in 1990) and only 5% of current permitted vessels were built after 2003.”
- •A typical shrimping trip costs more than $50,000 in fuel for a single tank. Many vessels operate at a loss trip after trip.
Uncollected Antidumping Duties
- •$106.5 million in antidumping duties owed by Chinese importers between FY2014 and FY2020 were never collected.
- •In FY2016 alone, $100.7 million in shrimp antidumping duties went uncollected across all countries.
- •The duties that ARE collected prove the system works when enforcement happens. The duties that AREN’T prove the system can be evaded.
The Legislative Trap
Their Only Real Hope. Stuck in Committee.
The bills that would level the playing field — country-of-origin labeling for restaurants, mandatory destruction of contaminated imports, ending U.S. taxpayer funding of foreign shrimp farms — have bipartisan support and sit in committee.
The Legislative Trap
Their Only Real Hope. Stuck in Committee.
The bills that would level the playing field — country-of-origin labeling for restaurants, mandatory destruction of contaminated imports, ending U.S. taxpayer funding of foreign shrimp farms — have bipartisan support and sit in committee.
The Two Lynchpin Bills
The LABEL Act (S. 3065)
Country-of-origin and production-method labeling for all seafood. Introduced by Sen. Hyde-Smith (R-MS). Supported by SSA, ASPA, and Louisiana Shrimp Association. Status: pending in Senate.
Destruction of Hazardous Imports Act (H.R. 2715)
Grants FDA authority to require destruction of contaminated imports at port, closing the port-shopping loophole. Rep. Higgins (R-LA) & Rep. Carter (D-LA). Senate companion S. 3213. Passed House. Pending in Senate.
Supporting Bills
- •Save Our Shrimpers Act (H.R. 2071) — stop IFC/World Bank funding of foreign shrimp farms. Rep. Nehls (R-TX). Passed House 391–18. Pending in Senate.
- •Safer Shrimp Imports Act (H.R. 3324 / S. 667) — require foreign shrimp facilities to meet FDA-equivalent inspection standards. Pending.
- •Imported Seafood Safety Standards Act (H.R. 512) — fund for shrimp inspection from collected duties. Rep. Higgins (R-LA). Pending.
- •FISH Act of 2025 (S. 688) — combat IUU fishing globally; blacklist offending foreign vessels. Pending.
- •Laws Ensuring Safe Shrimp (LESS) Act (H.R. 4547, 118th Congress) — direct 70% of collected AD duties to inspection and domestic-shrimp promotion. Rep. Graves (R-LA). Not yet reintroduced in 119th.
The Pattern
Bipartisan sponsorship. Industry endorsement. FDA endorsement. Repeatedly stalled in committee — no final passage.
“Help that comes 5 or 10 years down the road will be far too late for our industry, we are drowning now and there is no one willing to throw us that badly needed life ring.”
— Written Testimony for ITC Hearing, October 2024
The Harsh Reality
Our foods in the U.S. are safe and countries that import them feel comfortable to import them, but what is coming to our borders is often unsafe and a danger to our citizens.
— Tricia Kimball, PAASA Vice President
Help that comes 5 or 10 years down the road will be far too late for our industry. We are drowning now and there is no one willing to throw us that badly needed life ring.
— ITC Hearing Written Testimony, October 2024
For many years, shrimpers have been pleading for the U.S. government to take action to level the playing field, but instead things have only gone from bad to worse.
— ITC Hearing Written Testimony, October 2024
We are only asking for an even playing field — not a hand-out.
A Rigged System Can Be Unrigged.
PAASA and SSA represent working families fighting to save a domestic industry — and to protect every American who eats shrimp — from a system rigged against the people following the rules. The bills that would fix this are written, sponsored, and waiting.
PAASA
Port Arthur Area Shrimpers Association. Founded 2000. Representing working Gulf Coast shrimping families at the local and state level.
- Capt. Kyle Kimball, President
- Tricia Kimball, Vice President
- tkimball1999@gmail.com
- 409-626-0719
SSA
Southern Shrimp Alliance. National trade enforcement, federal lobbying, and consumer education for the domestic shrimp industry.