February 22, 2022 — All four members of Maine’s congressional delegation want the Biden administration to hold China accountable for its apparent failure to live up to a 2020 trade deal.
In a letter sent Thursday to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, Sen. Angus King and Reps. Chellie Pingree and Jared Golden said China has broken its promise to buy more Maine lobster. They also requested details on exactly how much lobster China agreed to buy under the trade deal, which was negotiated and signed during the Trump administration. Sen. Susan Collins sent Tai a similar letter Wednesday.
Recent analyses indicate that China has failed to buy all of the additional $200 million in U.S. goods that trade officials said the country committed to in the “Phase One Deal” unveiled in early 2020. An analysis by Bloomberg released last month said China had only purchased 63 percent of the U.S. goods it had agreed to buy as part of an effort to reduce the trade deficit between the two countries.
In their letter, King, Pingree and Golden said China has bought “almost no lobster above 2017 levels” and said U.S. officials need to take action to make sure the additional purchases spelled out in the agreement take place.