Chinese catfish were found contaminated a couple of years ago - don't remember with what but some Chinese fish have been found to contain melamine (at low non-toxic levels - so far).

This happened just after American catfish farmers got Congress to declare that only Channel Cat can be sold as "catfish" in the United States. This meant the Vietnamese could no longer call their catfish "catfish". For a bit they called it "China Sole", then Basa, now Swai (the version they export is not actually Basa, which they keep for themselves).

But the Chinese are raising Channel Cat. So when the Feds found contaminated Chinese catfish they slapped on a rule that all catfish from anywhere had to have additional inspection (probably presuming the Chinese would try laundering theirs so it looked like American source).

So guess who's catfish is exempt from the cost of this additional inspection - because it can't be called "catfish"?

Now the American catfish farmers are trying to get Congress to force the Vietnamese to call their catfish "catfish".

American catfish farming has declined quite a lot - but as I recall competition was not the problem, but water supplies and other factors.

So how safe is Vietnamese catfish? I can only quote an American catfish farmer who went to Vietnam to gather propaganda with which to fight the imports. "We went over there expecting to see catfish raised in polluted water and processed in primitive facilities. That's not what we found, and were scared."