Thailand has been listed as one of 89 countries that meet U.S. fishery standards, allowing it to continue exporting domestically caught seafood to the United States, but Thailand must now strengthen its control over imported raw materials.
Seafood from 42 non-compliant countries is not allowed to be shipped to the U.S. market.
The U.S. market brings over 38 billion Thai baht (approximately 1 billion U.S. dollars) in annual seafood trade to Thailand.
As a major seafood processing country, Thailand imports raw materials from multiple countries, and according to the new MMPA assessment requirements, it must not export any processed products containing seafood from the 42 non-compliant countries.