The Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA) has asked U.S. lawmakers to oppose international financial support for foreign shrimp farming development, a goal the group claims aligns with U.S. President Trump’s efforts to cut spending on foreign development.
The SSA previously called on the Biden administration to oppose funding for World Bank and International Monetary Fund programs to develop shrimp farming in other countries, arguing that the funding merely fosters more competition for domestic American shrimpers.
“The Treasury’s greenlighting of shrimp aquaculture development projects – using U.S. taxpayer dollars – defies Congress and sinks American shrimpers. This ‘America Last’ agenda must stop,” SSA Executive Director John Williams said in a statement.
In 2024, the head of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability called for a Government Accountability Office investigation to determine whether the Treasury Department is actively opposing international funding for foreign shrimp farming.
Now, SSA is seizing on Trump’s blitz of activity against funding for foreign development programs to encourage the administration to oppose funding for foreign shrimp farming. The group sent a letter to the leaders of the Senate committees on finance and foreign relations – the committees that provide oversight of the Department of Treasury and the U.S. government’s participation in international financial groups – arguing that increased oversight of international programs aligns with the Trump administration’s
“SSA believes that the additional scrutiny now seemingly being applied by the Treasury Department to IFI projects is consistent with the goals and objectives of the Trump Administration. SSA seeks consultations with the Departments of Treasury and State before the U.S. Executive Directors take a position on additional projects that further promote shrimp aquaculture,” the alliance said.
The SSA’s letter was delivered shortly before Wall Street billionaire and "special government employee" Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency moved to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Trump endorsed the move, claiming the agency was full of fraud. It remains unclear how foreign fisheries development and sustainability programs supported by USAID will be impacted; USAID allocated USD 73 million (EUR 70 million) on marine biodiversity and fisheries projects in fiscal year 2022.
“Our programs are at risk,” Byron Bay, Australia-based conservation group Positive Change for Marine Life said in a social media post. “The Trump administration’s freeze on all USAID-funded programs has left us facing a major funding gap.”
