Hello,
Yes AFAIK that should work.
The same level of the Workstation product has this knowledge base article about it: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2041591 It's for workstation, but it should normally also apply for this version of Fusion due to the shared code base.
One thing you can do as a quick workaround is to insert a USB2 hub inbetween, at least your driver will then work at USB2 speed. Not a solution, but a way to get at the data without having to change settings.
You mention you get the error before it even gets to the VM. Do you mean the error is presented in OS X?
--
Wil