I PICKED ON THE E.U. EARLIER, but the United States is not without sin on the shrimp-quota front:

Less than two weeks after a 40-foot wave flattened massive swaths of Southeast Asia, the United States slapped a tariff on millions of dollars worth of seafood imports from India and Thailand. As the federal government promised $350 million, and private citizens pledged even more, the message to surviving shrimp farmers was clear: Have our marines, our pity, and our cash, but for the love of God, do not send us your cheap shrimp.

Unlike Europe, we did send aircraft carriers and such. But as I’ve said here before, trade is better than aid. And, sympathies for Bubba Gump notwithstanding, so are cheap shrimp.