A protectionist battle in America over fish imports stinks like yesterday's catch.

Would a catfish by any other name taste as sweet? Maybe, but a protectionist battle brewing in America over fish imports from Vietnam sure stinks like yesterday's catch.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is weighing whether to classify the Vietnamese pangasius as "catfish" when applying the 2008 Farm Bill, a regulatory process mandated by the law. This isn't just semantics. Under the farm bill, catfish are subject to more stringent inspections than pangasius. Since Vietnam would not be able to implement the inspections cheaply or quickly, it would effectively amount to an import ban. Domestic U.S. producers are lobbying the Department of Agriculture for a broad definition of "catfish."

This is protectionism at its worst. Vietnamese pangasius is a different species from the catfish raised in the Mississippi River and China. The U.S. inspection requirement ostensibly is meant to ensure the safety of fish from China. There are no serious concerns about the safety of Vietnamese fish imports.

What gives the game away is the linguistic backflip of the U.S. catfish industry, which has fretted over Vietnamese competition for years. In 2002, American catfish producers persuaded Congress to pass a law stating that the Vietnamese fish are not catfish and couldn't be marketed as such. When calling the imports "basa," "tra" and "swai" didn't deter U.S. consumers from buying the product, U.S. catfishers successfully petitioned Washington to impose antidumping duties of between 36% and 64% instead.

Now American producers are willing to call the Vietnamese imports catfish again if it helps keep them out. This Keystone Protectionism would be funny if it weren't so serious. The Vietnamese fish are gaining market ground because they freeze well and are sturdy enough to process for products such as fish sticks; they are also more affordable than U.S. catfish. Blocking their import will mean fewer options and higher prices for U.S. consumers.

An effective ban also threatens workers in the U.S. fish processing industry, as House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, a Democrat, noted in a letter to the Department of Agriculture last month. His Massachusetts district is home to several processing plants that handle Vietnamese fish. A protectionist finding would be a big setback for the domestic Vietnamese pangasius industry, which forms the backbone of the economy along the Mekong river and accounts for exports valued at more than $1.4 billion in a country with GDP of around $90 billion.

President Obama talks about speeding America's recovery from recession and restoring America's image and leadership abroad. The Administration already has several trade disputes on its plate, from Mexican trucking to tariffs on Vietnamese grocery bags and possible quotas on Chinese tires. If the President is sincere in his rhetoric, he'll call it quits on those cases and on this catfish canard.