ENROLLED
2023 Regular Session
HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 29
BY REPRESENTATIVES KERNER AND GAROFALO AND SENATORS ABRAHAM,
CLOUD, CONNICK, FESI, HENSGENS, JACKSON, KLEINPETER, LAMBERT,
MILLIGAN, FRED MILLS, POPE, SMITH, AND WOMACK
A CONCURRENT RESOL UTION
To urge and request the president of the United States to reconsider the signed agreement
that facilitates growth of certain aquaculture exports from Ecuador to the United
States.
WHEREAS, on August 18, 2022, the United States Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) signed a confidentiality commitment with Ecuador's vice minister of Aquaculture and
Fisheries (VAP) within the Ministry of Production, Foreign Trade, Investments and Fisheries
of the Republic of Ecuador; and
WHEREAS, the purpose of the confidentiality commitment or agreement is to allow
for the exchange of confidential information, including inspection of records, draft
rulemaking and guidance, and other nonpublic documents; and
WHEREAS, the agreement with Ecuador is designed to ensure the safety of shrimp
imported to the United States and offers guarantees for aquaculture exports to the United
States; and
WHEREAS, according to an article from the seafood industry's trade publication
Seafood Source, in the first six months of 2022, Ecuador exported at least one billion one
hundred million pounds of shrimp abroad at that time, with the United States being its
second-biggest market; and
WHEREAS, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in
2020, the United States imported approximately one billion six hundred million pounds of
shrimp, an increase of up to seven and one half percent from 2019; and
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WHEREAS, in 2022, Ecuador was the second leading source of shrimp exports to
the United States, after India, exporting four hundred forty-one million pounds of shrimp to
the United States, according to Seafood Source; and
WHEREAS, according to the 2021-2022 annual report from the Louisiana
Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, shrimp are the state's most valuable fishery; and
WHEREAS, the average real dockside value of Louisiana shrimp fell from one dollar
and ninety-three cents per pound in 2000 to one dollar and three cents per pound in 2018;
and
WHEREAS, this unfair competition allows foreign competitors to flood the United
States market, devastating local industries.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
urge and request the president of the United States to reconsider an agreement signed with
Ecuador that facilitates growth of certain aquaculture exports from Ecuador to the United
States.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
White House and to the presiding officers of the Senate and the House of Representatives
of the Congress of the United States and to each member of the Louisiana congressional
delegation.
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
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