NRDC Asks CIT to Enforce Settlement, Urge US to Implement Fisheries Import Ban
Three wildlife advocacy groups urged the Court of International Trade to compel the U.S. to comply with its settlement agreement with the groups by requiring the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to bar the importation of fish and fish products from all harvesting nations that don't meet Marine Mammal Protect Act (MMPA) standards (Natural Resources Defense Council v. Howard Lutnick, CIT # 24-00148).
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The three groups -- the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Center for Biological Diversity and the Animal Welfare Institute -- said the government violated its settlement agreement by striking another settlement agreement in a separate CIT case, which was led by the National Fisheries Institute. In the separate case, the U.S. agreed to stay the effective date of an import ban for swimming crab fisheries in five nations pending NMFS' reconsideration of the comparability findings for these fisheries (see 2510310035).
The NRDC argued that in its settlement agreement, the U.S. agreed to issue comparability findings for all harvesting nations by September 2025 and, on Jan. 1, 2026, bar the importation of fish and fish products from all harvesting nations for which NMFS had denied a comparability finding (see 2503250033). The MMPA requires that such an import ban be imposed on fisheries that don't have the same protections as U.S. fisheries.
However, since the NRDC settled its case, the U.S. struck a settlement in the separate lawsuit brought by the National Fisheries Institute. The NRDC said the U.S. is trying to "renege" on its obligations under the initial settlement agreement by delaying the Jan. 1, 2026, implementation date of the import ban for five swimming crab fisheries in Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia and Sri Lanka for which NMFS has denied comparability findings.
The U.S. "agreed to these terms in clear violation" of its settlement agreement, "which this Court has the power to enforce," the NRDC argued before the trade court. The advocacy group urged CIT to ban the import of fish and fish products from these five fisheries on Jan. 1, 2026.
The settlement agreement only establishes "two narrow circumstances where Defendants can obtain relief from their obligations under the [settlement] -- neither of which applies," the brief said. First, under the settlement agreement, NMFS can "reconsider" a comparability finding "in accordance with" its regulations. While the National Fisheries Institute settlement references "reconsideration," its "reconsideration" isn't "in accordance with" NMFS regulations, since the regulations "expressly require that, during any reconsideration, an import ban shall 'remain in effect' until NMFS is able to make a positive finding," the brief said.
Second, the settlement recognizes the government's ability to comply with a court order enjoining the enforcement of a comparability finding. "The NFI Settlement does not qualify," the NRDC said, since it only asked the court to retain jurisdiction to oversee compliance with the terms of the parties' stipulation.