Saving Seafood

Maine delegation asks for help easing tariff impact on lobster industry

July 15, 2019 — Maine’s Congressional delegation is urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture to include funding for Maine’s lobster industry as USDA finalizes its aid package for agricultural producers affected by China’s retaliatory tariffs.

U.S. Sens. Angus King, I-Maine, and Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Reps. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine 1st District, and Jared Golden, D-Maine 2nd District, have signed a letter that reiterates an earlier request of relief for Maine’s lobster industry amid the ongoing trade war with China, according to a news release.

“Retaliatory tariffs have caused a very significant export market for Maine lobster — China — to all but disappear,” the letter says.

The delegation requested “significant” funds for Maine’s lobster industry through USDA’s Agricultural Trade Promotion Program.

“ATP funding will help to develop new export markets for Maine lobster, decreasing the blow of Chinese tariffs on an iconic American industry,” the letter said.

In June, the delegation sent a letter to President Donald Trump urging him to provide financial assistance to lobster businesses hurt by the ongoing trade war with China, similar to the relief being provided to American farmers.

The delegation noted that prior to the Trump administration’s tariffs imposed on a variety of Chinese goods, China had become the second largest importer of Maine lobster.

Read the full story at MaineBiz

Gloucester Lobster Industry Feeling The Pinch From China Trade War

July 11, 2019 — In Massachusetts, lobster is about as local a food as you can hope to find. These days, it’s also likely to be on the menu in Beijing and Shanghai. China has become a major lobster importer.

But one year into the U.S. trade war with China, U.S. lobster sales to China are down, and coastal communities — including Gloucester — are feeling the pinch.

Vince Mortillaro, who runs a lobster wholesale company in Gloucester, has worked over the last decade to capitalize on the demand for lobster from China, developing systems that enable him to ship fresh lobster from Gloucester to China in 36 hours and spending $3 million to build a new dock and warehouse to hold extra product.

The payoff was enormous: a 30 to 40 percent jump in business.

Then the trade war began, and lobster, like soybeans and steel, was caught in the cross hairs. In response to U.S. tariff increases on Chinese goods in July 2018, China raised tariffs on U.S. imports — including lobster. It now costs Chinese companies an extra 25 percent to buy lobsters from the U.S.

“We’re down over $6 million in sales,” said Mortillaro. “Over a million dollars a month.”

But China is still importing plenty of lobster — now, from Mortillaro’s competitors in Canada. In the wake of raising U.S. lobster tariffs, China lowered tariffs on Canadian lobsters to 7 percent.

Read the full story at WGBH

High Stakes for China as WTO Fishing Subsidies Cap Looms

July 8, 2019 — As the World Trade Organisation confronts a deadline this year to reach an agreement to eliminate subsidies that are decimating global fish populations, perhaps no nation faces higher stakes than China.

China operates the planet’s largest fishing fleet, catches the most seafood and hands out the most money in fuel subsidies and other support that enables industrial trawlers to travel to the furthest reaches of the ocean. As a result of the expansion of global fishing fleets to meet rising demand, 33% of fish populations are being harvested at biologically unsustainable levels while 90% are fully exploited, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

Researchers in 2016 pegged total annual fishing subsidies at US$35 billion (in 2009 dollars). They categorised US$20 billion of those incentives as harmful with as much as 85% of that money going to industrial fishing operations. A 2018 study found that in the absence of US$4.2 billion in subsidies, more than half of high seas fishing would be unprofitable. Furthermore, China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and Spain account for 80% of fishing outside territorial waters. Researchers estimate that China alone was responsible for 21% of high seas fishing in 2014 and nearly 19% of global fish catch averaged between 2014 and 2016.

In 2001, the WTO formally recognised the need to reform fishing subsidies and member nations four years later called for the abolition of incentives that contribute to overfishing. Negotiations languished for a decade but took on new urgency in 2015 after the UN adopted a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Among them was SDG 14.6, which calls for the prohibition by 2020 of subsidies that contribute to overcapacity, overfishing and illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Still, WTO’s last biennial meeting in December 2017 ended without an agreement on fishing subsidies. However, the 164 WTO member states, which must approve decisions by consensus, did agree to redouble efforts to reach an agreement by the end of 2019.

This year, negotiators have been meeting monthly at WTO headquarters in Geneva to try to break the stalemate. An agreement to ban fishing subsidies would have a profound impact on ocean health and national economies. Unlike other international agreements, such as the Paris accord on climate change, WTO actions are binding and carry the weight of law.

Read the full story at The Maritime Executive

Lobster dealers feel pinch in tariff trade wars

July 3, 2019 — A year ago this month, China imposed a sweeping array of retaliatory tariffs that effectively closed off the massive Chinese consumer market to U.S. seafood dealers — particularly lobster exporters such as Mortillaro Lobster of Gloucester.

Consider: Mortillaro estimates that during the first six months of 2019, the 25% Chinese tariffs have cost it more than a half-million pounds of lobster sales to China, valued at about $6 million.

“The impact has been huge,” Vince Mortillaro, one of the owners of the Gloucester seafood dealer, said Tuesday afternoon. “We’ve had to lay people off. We’re not losing a barrel-full right now, but we’re not really making any money, either. And it’s tough to come to work when the company’s not really making any money.”

And it’s not just China.

Mortillaro and other lobster exporters also have been stung by deep cuts in lobster sales to the European Union — primarily because of an exclusive trade deal between Canada and the EU that frees Canadian lobster exporters from any tariffs while imposing an 8% tariff on shipments from the U.S.

“We used to sell more to the EU than to China,” Mortillaro said. “Now we’ve got the double-whammy. We can’t sell to the 28 EU countries and we can’t sell to China.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

China to revise key law on distant-water fishing

July 2, 2019 — China has signaled a redrafting of its key law on overseas fishing.

Its law, “The Administration of Offshore Fisheries, 2003,” is being updated by the Chinese government, which has been circulating drafts to regional officials and fisheries industry representatives.

The new draft is necessary because China has joined five international fishery bodies or agreements since the 2003 law went into effect, according to a statement from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

The new law will allow for higher fines and new limits on switching nationality or switching flags on vessels. But details on how or when the new regulations will be implemented have not yet become publicly available.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

China launches “biggest and best” fisheries research vessels for international waters

July 1, 2019 — China has launched its two largest fisheries research vessels to date that will give it an extensive reach into global waters.

Launched at the Hu Dong Zhong Hua shipyard in Shanghai, the “Lan Hai 101” and the “Lan Hai 201” –both 3,000 tons and 85 meters in length – will study fisheries resources and the marine environment in seas around China as well as the high seas, including the Arctic Ocean and the Southern Ocean, according to a statement from the Chinese Academy of Fisheries, which will staff the vessels.

“With these vessels, we can now construct a comprehensive research platform,” said Chinese Fisheries Academy President Wang Xiao Hu, speaking at the launch ceremony in Shanghai. “These are our most modern and largest vessels so far.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Moulton, Ferrante: Trade war hurting lobstermen

July 1, 2019 — The U.S. trade war with China has turned into a war of another kind, as representatives at the state and federal levels are taking aim at tariffs that have rocked several sectors of the New England seafood industry.

In Washington, U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, a Democratic candidate for president, filed legislation to expand disaster relief to fisheries — such as the New England lobster industry — harmed by retaliatory tariffs that have choked off lucrative trade with China.

The bill calls for amending the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act “to require NOAA to evaluate the impacts of duties imposed on American seafood” and to ultimately allow the federal Department of Commerce to consider the impact of trade wars on the fishing industry as a means of providing disaster relief.

A similar measure was filed in the U.S. Senate by Sen. Ron Wyden, the senior senator from Oregon.

“The president’s lack of strategy and the uncertainty in our local economy is the perfect storm for local fishermen who are already doing more with less,” Moulton said in a statement. “Until the president ends his misguided trade war, Congress should step up and provide some relief.”

In Boston, state Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante of Gloucester pushed for a hearing in Gloucester by a joint committee of the Massachusetts Legislature on the Trump administration’s trade policies with China “and its effects on the Massachusetts lobster industry and corresponding ports.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

US congressmen propose expanding fishermen disaster relief to include tariffs

July 1, 2019 — A pair of Democratic lawmakers announced on Wednesday, 26 June, that they have filed legislation to amend the Magnuson-Stevens Act to enable the federal government to expand the scope of fishery disasters to include trade wars.

In a joint release, Oregon U.S. Senator Ron Wyden and Massachusetts U.S. Representative Seth Moulton said their bills would require the Department of Commerce to consider the economic impact the Trump Administration’s embargoes, and the retaliatory ones implemented by nations like China.

According to NOAA Fisheries website, there have been 87 fishery disasters either approved or awaiting approval since 1985.

Moulton said the ongoing trade war is taking money away from hard working fishermen and making families’ grocery bills more expensive.

“The president’s lack of strategy and the uncertainty in our local economy is the perfect storm for local fishermen who are already doing more with less,” he said. “Until the president ends his misguided trade war, Congress should step up and provide some relief.”

A number of industries have been affected by the tariffs, Wyden said, including American fisheries.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

New FAO boss was key China emissary on fisheries deals

June 28, 2019 — The new head of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has played a central role in expanding China’s global seafood reach and will now get to shape key global policies on agriculture, aquaculture, and fisheries.

China Vice Minister for Agriculture Qu Dongyu won the support of a majority of FAO nation-states, defeating France’s Catherine Geslain-Laneelle 107-71 in an election during the 41st session of the FAO Conference, which took place 22 to 29 June.  Qu becomes the ninth director-general of the Rome, Italy-based organization.

Qu will replace Brazilian Jose Graziano da Silva, who reportedly lobbied Latin American nations for Qu. Qu’s election is a clear indication of China’s power as a purchaser and investor in agriculture and fisheries commodities globally. According to French news reports, China used its role as a key customer of Latin American commodities such as soy, seafood, and meat to deliver votes for Qu.

The new FAO director has become familiar with many of the world’s agriculture and fisheries ministers during his many trips around the world as a Chinese minister. As China’s vice minister for agriculture, Qu represented China in World Trade Organization talks on fishery subsidies (which were held up in part over objections from India and China over the scale and timing of subsidy cuts by developing nations).

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Sen. Wyden introduces bill to expand disaster relief to fisheries harmed by tariffs

June 27, 2019 — U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, (D-Ore.), and U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, (D-Mass.), recently introduced legislation to expand disaster relief to fisheries harmed by tariffs.

Currently, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) guidelines used to identify the causes of fishery disasters does not explicitly include tariffs. Wyden’s bill would amend the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Act to require NOAA to evaluate the impacts of duties imposed on American seafood, ensuring the Department of Commerce receives a complete overview of factors affecting a fishery in all fishery disaster declaration designations.

“American businesses are being hit hard by retaliatory tariffs from Trump’s ill-conceived trade agenda,” Wyden said. “Fisheries unfortunately are no exception. West Coast seafood is sought after internationally, and Oregonians earning a living in fisheries should be able to command top dollar on the global market, rather than be ensnared in the cross-fire of Trump’s escalating trade war.”

In March of this year, Wyden and Sen. Jeff Merkley, (D-Ore.), secured $2.1 million in federal disaster recovery aid for coastal fisheries in Oregon. Multiple years of drought in California, parasites within the Klamath River Basin and poor ocean conditions led to low returns of the Oregon Klamath River Fall Chinook Salmon Fishery in 2016 and 2017.

Read the full story at The News Guard