Stinking Shrimp Story Follows Bat From Burma to Bin

British American Tobacco - under fire in the UK over its refusal to withdraw from Burma - has caused a stink in the United States because of some mysterious seafood imports.

A shipment of shrimps with the name of BAT subsidiary Rothmans of Pall Mall stamped all over it was impounded by the American food and drug administration and deemed unfit for human consumption.

The world's number two cigarette maker appears to have become involved in the unusual trade through an attempt to win foreign currency for its controversial business in Burma, otherwise known as Myanmar. The company is regularly under fire from human rights campaigners for basing a factory in the country.

It has so far refused to end its links with the country, which is run by a military dictatorship, saying it is up to the government to impose sanctions if it wishes.

BAT has established relationships with local exporters to win foreign currency to buy raw materials for its Rangoon plant but insisted it had no direct connection with fish or any other kind of foodstuffs.

The federation of trade unions in Burma and the human rights group, the Burma Campaign UK, claim to have unearthed documents which appear to show otherwise. And the US food and drug administration website says a Rothmans of Pall Mall Myanmar shipment of frozen peeled shrimps was refused entry to America on the grounds that it was inedible.

"The article appears to consist in whole or in part of a filthy, putrid or decomposed substance or be otherwise unfit for food," according to the food and drug administration entry dated December 17 2002.

BAT said last night it was baffled by the report.

"I have no idea how our name came to be attached to the shrimp exports," a London-based spokeswoman for the company said.

"Certainly we have never been contacted about this by the FDA."