Saving Seafood

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

NGO files Magnitsky sanctions recommendation in US against Chinese processors

January 11, 2024 — An NGO confirmed to SeafoodSource it has formally filed a recommendation to implement Global Magnitsky (GloMag) sanctions against Chinese companies named in the recent Outlaw Ocean report on labor issues in the U.S. seafood supply chain.

The Outlaw Ocean report revealed evidence that seafood processed by Uyghur labor in China has entered the U.S. supply chain – a violation of the U.S.’s Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act (UFLPA). The report – along with video evidence that was released later – identified Uyghur laborers in the supply chain of several Chinese processing and fishing companies that provide seafood to dozens of companies worldwide, including several in the U.S.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

David and Lucile Packard Foundation place equity, justice at the forefront of its ocean grants

December 27, 2023 — Trustees of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation have approved an initiative to make justice and equity central tenets of the organization’s grantmaking efforts.

The initiative, which aims to provide more equitable and durable support – both regionally and locally – to Indigenous peoples, fishers, and other communities dependent on the ocean, is currently in a transitional phase as it consolidates several strategies into a single, integrated ocean initiative structured around three primary portfolios of work: global fisheries, ocean habitats and communities, and ocean-based climate solutions.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Biden expands clampdown on U.S. imports of China-processed Russian seafood

December 26, 2023 — President Joe Biden on Friday signed an executive order enabling the closure of a sanctions loophole that has allowed the U.S. importation of large quantities of Russian-caught pollock, cod, salmon and crab processed in China.

The action has been sought by North Pacific seafood industry officials — and their congressional allies — who say that Chinese-processed Russian seafood has contributed to soft U.S. markets and lower prices paid to Alaska fishermen.

The crackdown on the seafood imports is part of a broader effort by the Biden administration to add bite to the U.S. sanctions rolled out in a March 2022 executive order responding to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The initial seafood sanction banned the imports of Russian seafood exported directly to the United States, but allowed those products to move freely to American consumers if they were first processed in another country.

Biden’s Friday action expands U.S. ability to sanction financial institutions, and also includes language that will enable tougher sanctions on Russian seafood and diamonds even if “substantially transformed” in another country.

Read the full article at the Seattle Times

Biden administration orders crackdown on Russian seafood imports

December 26, 2023 — President Joe Biden Dec. 22 signed an executive order expanding the U.S. ban on Russian seafood to include imports of Russia-originated seafood processed in third countries, including China.

The unnumbered executive order expands U.S. Executive Order 14068 to prohibit the importation of seafood “harvested in Russian waters or by Russia-flagged vessels, even if these products are then transformed in a third country.”

“The United States has been clear: those who are supplying goods or processing transactions that materially support Russia’s military industrial base are complicit in Russia’s brutal violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Biden said in a statement.

Biden said the executive order resulted in part from the G7 Leaders’ statement, issued Dec. 6. The order called for the group’s seven members – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the U.S., and the European Union – to step up its efforts against evasion and circumvention of their sanctions and export controls measures on Russian goods. The statement called for additional actions to further curtail Russia profiting from the export of its commodities, including through the imposition of measures to limit their sale through third countries.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Squid games on the high seas as U.S. Coast Guard monitors Chinese fishing vessels

December 24, 2023 — Squid, which can weigh over a 100 pounds and are a vital source of food and jobs, are pursued by fishermen up and down the South American coast as they migrate each year. And wherever they go, China’s “squid jiggers” can be found.

Fishing is a multibillion-dollar industry, and China’s fleets dominate the Pacific Ocean. Operating thousands of miles from home, they have helped make the country one of biggest exporters of seafood in the world, as well as the worst-scoring nation when it comes to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.

Since late last year however, Chinese vessels have been subject to inspections from the U.S. Coast Guard, which has been empowered by measures introduced by the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organization (SPRFMO), a 14-member, intergovernmental body that aims to ensure sustainable fishing in the South Pacific Ocean.

Read the full article at NBC News