US: NOAA considers including squid, salmon and other imported seafood in its regulatory plan in response to "forced labor"

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released an action plan on November 14, 2024, which plans to expand the coverage of the "Seafood Import Monitoring Program" (SIMP), focusing on high-risk species such as squid and salmon, and for the first time formally incorporating the issue of forced labor into the regulatory vision of the global seafood supply chain. The plan aims to address illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and other issues in the seafood supply chain. NOAA proposed to establish a two-level priority system to optimize the traceability process according to the risk level of the species, and to launch a pre-screening procedure to prevent non-compliant seafood from entering the U.S. market. .The new plan will also strengthen the collection of information such as transshipment records at sea and the duration of fishing trips. NOAA emphasized that long-term offshore operations and an environment lacking resource support may exacerbate ...