Saving Seafood

US commission urges action on alleged North Korean labor in China fishing

March 13, 2024 — A U.S. congressional commission has called on the Biden administration to act against alleged forced labor involving North Korean workers in China’s fishing industry, saying seafood sales to U.S. consumers could be helping finance North Korea’s weapons programs.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

North Korea is under U.S.-led international sanctions, to which China is a party, aimed at reining in ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs that threaten the United States and its allies.

The sanctions include prohibition of the use of North Korean labor in third countries, and as the Congressional Executive Commission on China letter states, U.S. law prohibits imports of any goods made with North Korean labor.

CONTEXT

The concerns were highlighted in a letter dated on Monday and made available on Wednesday sent to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Alejandro Mayorkas, head of the Department of Homeland Security, from Republican Representative Chris Smith and Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley, co-chairs of the commission.

Read the full article at Reuters

US commission pushing Biden administration to halt imports of Chinese seafood linked to North Korean labor

March 13, 2024 — The U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China has sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas calling on the officials’ two departments to collaborate in determining whether seafood processed in China using North Korean labor is making its way into the U.S. supply chain.

The letter adds to earlier calls from the commission for federal action against Chinese companies credibly accused of using forced labor in seafood processing. In December, the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party issued its own report recommending special trade status for the country.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

“Big plans” for seafood industry expansion announced at National People’s Congress

March 9, 2024 — China’s seafood industry has the government’s full backing to expand, judging from comments made at China’s annual National People’s Congress.

In remarks at the annual National People’s Congress in Beijing on 5 March, Chinese Premier Li Qiang spoke of strengthening China’s food security, including continuing a policy of backing the country’s distant-water fishing sector, which the government supports with generous subsidies.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Trident, High Liner, Sysco cut ties with Chinese companies tied to North Korean labor

February 27, 2024 — Trident Seafoods, High Liner Foods, and Sysco are among the U.S. seafood firms that have suspended relationships with Chinese processors named in the latest Outlaw Ocean Project report, which revealed their use of North Korean labor, in violation of U.N. sanctions and U.S. law.

The use of North Korean laborers was prohibited in 2017 by the United Nations Security Council in response to the country testing a series of nuclear and ballistic weapons, and the U.S. has also passed a law categorizing the use of North Korean labor as forced labor unless credibly proven otherwise. Despite that, Outlaw Ocean estimates more than 120,000 metric tons (MT) of seafood have been shipped from companies using North Korean laborers to American importers since 2017.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

As China’s squid catch soars, conservationists worry about scale of distant-water fleet

February 24, 2024 –A new report on the growth of China’s squid industry is predicting continued growth due to government support, investor appetite, and growing consumer demand.

The report, released by Guangzhou-based Heng Zhou Chengsi, also known as YH Research, notes government support through subsidies has led to investors backing several companies involved in tuna processing, including Ocean Family.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Lawmakers press for investigation into forced labor in seafood supply chains

February 20, 2024 — A group of bipartisan lawmakers are asking the Biden administration to investigate forced labor allegations in seafood supply chains in China.

The group is led by California Reps. Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.) and Michelle Steel (R-Calif.).

They wrote a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai and acting U.S. Customs and Border Protections Commissioner Troy Miller to urge them to evaluate the supply chain’s alleged force labor ahead of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Ministerial Conference next week.

Read the full article at The Hill

US lawmakers call on Biden administration to impose Magnitsky sanctions against Chinese companies

February 16, 2024 — A group of U.S. lawmakers has called on U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen to impose Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (GloMag) sanctions on Chinese companies named in the October 2023 Outlaw Ocean Project report on forced labor in Chinese processing facilities.

U.S. representatives Jared Huffman, Mike Gallagher, Raul Grijalva, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Betty McCollum, James Moylan, Josh Gottheimer, Jill Tokuda, Marry Peltola, Julia Brownley, and Delia Ramirez all signed the letter, which urged the executive branch of the federal government to impose sanctions on the Chinese companies.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Shrimp alliance calls for U.S. ban on forced-labor imports

January 30, 2024 — The Southern Shrimp Alliance asked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security this week to add eight seafood processors in China to a list of companies blocked from importing to the U.S. because of their use of forced labor.

In a Jan. 29 letter the SSA points to evidence that red shrimp caught off Argentina  is shipped to China, and processed in plants in Shandong province where members of China’s ethnic Uyghur work under forced labor conditions.

The shrimp alliance in particular cites reporting on Uyghur labor by the Outlaw Ocean Project, a nonprofit investigative journalism group founded by maritime reporter Ian Urbina.  

“The Outlaw Ocean Project recently documented that members of the Uyghur minority were forcibly moved out of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) to Shandong and coerced to work in seafood processing facilities, including shrimp,” according to a statement from the SSA.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Southern Shrimp Alliance calls for ban on shrimp entering US from eight Chinese companies

January 30, 2024 — The Southern Shrimp Alliance is calling on the U.S. government to increase its scrutiny of shrimp processed and shipped to the U.S. by Chinese exporters, and a complete ban on imports from multiple companies, after recent revelations regarding alleged uses of Uyghur and forced labor by The Outlaw Ocean Project.

On 29 January, the SSA sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force calling on the department to scrutinize shrimp sourced from China’s Shandong province. The Outlaw Ocean report found extensive evidence of forced labor being employed in Shandong’s seafood processing sector.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

US sets antidumping tariffs on foreign tin used in canning seafood

January 13, 2024 — The U.S. Department of Commerce has finalized antidumping tariffs for imported tin products used in seafood canning.

The tariffs are largely unchanged from the preliminary rates announced in August 2023, with the department implementing dumping rates of 123 percent for Chinese tin imports, 5 percent for Canadian tin imports, and 7 percent for German tin imports. However, the department also opted to set tariffs on some imported steel from South Korea, despite its preliminary determination to not do so.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource