Saving Seafood

Trump calls for more tariffs in scale-up of trade war against China

September 10, 2018 — U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to extend U.S. tariffs to an additional USD 267 billion (EUR 230.1 billion) worth of Chinese goods in comments made on Friday, 7 September.

Trump said the new round of tariffs will “take place very soon, depending on what happens.” He added a new list of goods to be affected by the tariffs is ready to go and could be rolled out on short notice, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Trump’s administration previously announced tariffs on USD 200 billion (EUR 170 billion) of Chinese goods on 11 July. That was a follow-up on his levying of tariffs on USD 50 billion (EUR 29.3 billion) worth of Chinese goods in June, and China’s equivalent response later that month.

“If the United States insists on imposing another round of tariffs on Chinese products, China will definitely take countermeasures to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said following publication of Trump’s threat on 7 September.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

Tariffs throw wrench into seafood supply chain

September 6, 2018 — Many seafood processors, fishermen and support businesses have been watching with increasing dismay as the trade war between U.S. and China heats up and impacts billions of dollars in trade.

In March, President Donald Trump’s administration announced its intention to levy tariffs against China in connection with “unfair” trade practices, including theft of intellectual property. When the first round of tariffs on Chinese products were announced, the seafood industry hoped to escape the list of impacted items.

That hope faded when a host of seafood products were included on the list of proposed retaliatory tariffs from the Chinese government. Then Office of the U.S. Trade Representative proposed another set of tariffs, including seafood products, at 10 percent in July. Then that number was upped to 25 percent in August.

In a hearing hosted by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative Aug. 20–24, Bob DeHaan of the National Fisheries Institute said the tariffs will effectively punish American fishermen for Chinese intellectual property theft, which has nothing to do with them. Of the $2.7 billion in proposed tariffs on seafood, more than $95 million came from Alaskan fishermen.

“In many cases such as the iconic Bristol Bay salmon run that just concluded this year, the fishermen are family-owned enterprises who sell their catch to seafood companies for processing, distribution and sale around the world,” he said. “How punishing these harvesters and these businesses for in effect buying American will convince China to respect its obligations regarding intellectual property rights and technology transfers is difficult to fathom.”

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce

Alaskans worried by prospect of deep-sea fish farms

September 4, 2018 — In a Centennial Hall listening session, Alaskans raised concerns about federal plans to boost open-ocean fish farms under a new strategic plan for the U.S. Department of Commerce.

On Friday afternoon, Tim Gallaudet, acting undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere, hosted a listening session at the end of a weeklong gathering of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration experts in Juneau.

NOAA is an agency of the Department of Commerce, and Gallaudet is among the figures hosting meetings across the country as part of the process that creates the strategic plan.

In a speech opening the listening session, Gallaudet said the strategic plan is an “initiative to grow the American ‘blue economy.’”

That phrase is used as an umbrella term that includes fisheries, oceanic tourism and other aspects of the national economy that relate to the oceans.

Gallaudet echoed the familiar refrains of the Trump Administration, saying the department is interested in deregulation and “reducing the seafood trade deficit.”

President Donald Trump’s trade war with China has resulted in Chinese tariffs on Alaska seafood exported to that country, and American tariffs on processed Alaska seafood products imported from China.

Read the full story at the Juneau Empire

Tariffs set to take toll on Alaska seafood exports and imports

August 30, 2018 — More seafood tariffs in Trump’s trade war with China are hitting Alaska coming and going.

On July 6, the first 25 percent tax went into effect on more than 170 U.S. seafood products going to China. On Aug. 23 more items were added to the list, including fishmeal from Alaska.

“As of right now, nearly every species and product from Alaska is on that list of tariffs,” said Garrett Evridge, a fisheries economist with the McDowell Group.

Alaska produces more than 70,000 metric tons of fishmeal per year (about 155 million pounds), mostly from pollock trimmings, with salmon a distant second. The pollock meal is used primarily in Chinese aquaculture production, while salmon meal goes mostly to pet food makers in the U.S.

In 2017 about $70 million worth of fishmeal from Alaska pollock was exported to China from processing plants all over the state.

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce

Revised NAFTA agreement between US and Mexico may leave Canada behind

August 28, 2018 — The United States and Mexico have come to a preliminary agreement to revise the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA),

The agreement, which does not yet include Canada, is expected to be finalized within days, according to U.S. President Donald Trump. It includes modest changes to the trade accord, which was put in place in 1994 as a means to lower tariffs and other trade barriers between the three countries.

“We’re very excited about this agreement,” U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in an interview with CNBC. “We think it is going to lead to more trade, not less trade.”

Changes to the accord include modifications to regulations affecting the automobile, energy, and telecommunications industries, as well as a tightening of intellectual property protections. The agreement, which extends NAFTA for 16 years, also includes a sunset clause that requires the U.S., Mexico, and Canada to ratify the deal every six years.

However, an agreement that does not involve Canada is likely to face a legal challenge, according to The New York Times.

“[NAFTA] is a trilateral agreement. It requires legislation and a change to NAFTA requires legislation,” said U.S. Senator Patrick J. Toomey [R-Pennsylvania]. “I’ve told them any change has to go through Congress. There is not necessarily complete agreement about that.”

Trump will also likely face opposition from Congress, which only granted his administration authority to renegotiate NAFTA as a trilateral deal.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Chinese buyers hesitant to buy Alaska seafood as U.S. weighs another round of tariffs

August 28, 2018 — In the first round of what seems to be an escalating trade dispute between the U.S. and China, tariffs have been levied on billions of dollars worth of goods in both countries. The Alaska fishing industry, which harvests roughly 60 percent of all wild seafood in the U.S., has been caught in the crosshairs of that disagreement.

But it’s not the Chinese tariffs that’s giving the industry heartburn. It’s a proposed tariff on seafood imported from China.

The Alaska seafood industry has a unique relationship with China. Nearly $1 billion worth of Alaska seafood was exported into the country in 2017, but that’s just the first step in a global supply chain.

“So much of our exports to China are reprocessed and re-exported,” Garrett Everidge, a fisheries economist with the McDowell Group, said.

Everidge explains that after those fish are reprocessed, they’re exported into markets around the world, including the U.S. Although, it’s hard to discern from trade data just how much winds back up in the U.S. market.

China kept its relationship with the Alaska seafood industry in mind when it levied a 25 percent tariff on U.S. seafood earlier this summer.

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media

Will Louisiana’s shrimpers strike? ‘It’s a last resort’

August 28, 2018 — Acy Cooper bought his first shrimping vessel, an old wooden flatboat, when he was 15.

Cooper followed his father and grandfather before him into the rich gumbo Gulf of Mexico waters from the fishing community of Venice on the coast of southern Louisiana.

Today Cooper and his two sons and son-in-law operate two Laffite skiffs — one 35-footer and one 30-footer — docked in the same community for another generation.

But although many American business owners are bracing for potential negative impacts of a trade war triggered by President Donald Trump’s tariffs, Cooper and his fellow shrimpers are pleading for such protections as foreign producers dump shrimp in the U.S. and cratering prices in the process.

In fact, earlier this month, about 200 members of the Louisiana Shrimpers Association, of which Cooper is president, threatened to go on strike without some action either from the Gulf Coast processors who buy their shrimp or from the president in the forms of tariffs or quotas.

“We were getting $1 a pound in the 1980s; now we’re getting 55 cents,” Cooper said as he prepared to spend another night on his boat casting his skimmer nets during the white shrimp season that began in August. “(Striking) is a last resort, but we have to show the processors we’re not going to work for nothing. Our communities are dying.”

During the shrimpers’ meeting in Houma one yelled, according to a nola.com report, “How many heard (Trump) say ‘make America great again’? Make shrimping great again!”

Read the full story at the Monroe News Star

US senator from Alaska speaks out against Trump tariffs

August 27, 2018 — If the Trump administration is serious about putting “America First,” then it must consider what the proposed 25 percent tariff on Chinese products will do to the Alaskan seafood industry. That was the message U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan delivered last week at a public hearing held by the U.S. International Trade Commission.

The Alaska Republican testified his state is currently caught in the crossfire as the world’s two largest economies consider hiking levies on goods imported from each other.

Sullivan said nearly USD 1 billion (EUR 859.4 million) in U.S. seafood ultimately destined for American consumers is being targeted by these tariffs. That’s because frozen fish, after it’s initially processed in the States, is sent to China to be filleted because it is more cost-effective. Most of that is caught by Alaskan fishermen.

Sullivan likened the fish to an American car made in the U.S. by local workers, only to have the final detailing performed in China before its sent back to dealerships here. The Trump administration wouldn’t consider increasing tariffs on those automobiles, Sullivan said.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

NFI testifies against proposed tariffs against China

August 23, 2018 — The National Fisheries Institute testified before the United States Trade Representative on 22 August in strong opposition to new tariffs proposed by the Trump Administration on Chinese goods.

The tariffs, which could be either 10 or 25 percent, would impact USD 200 billion (EUR 172 billion) in goods sourced annually from China. Robert DeHaan, representing NFI, said the tariffs would harm the seafood industry in the United States.

“USTR’s proposal will punish American fishermen and the communities that rely on them by making their products more expensive for American families to eat,” said DeHaan. “Of the [USD 2.7 billion (EUR 2.32 billion)] in annual seafood shipments subject to this proposal, an estimated [USD 950 million (EUR 819 million)] – more than a third – comes from an American fisherman – primarily an Alaska fisherman – harvesting in U.S. waters in a U.S.-flag vessel using a U.S. crew.”

The Trump Administration’s stated goal for the tariffs – making China respect its obligations regarding intellectual property rights – don’t line up with tariffs on seafood, added DeHaan.

“How punishing these harvesters – and these businesses for ‘Buying American’ – will convince China to respect its obligations regarding intellectual property rights and technology transfers is difficult to fathom,” he said. “Cutting fish is not an intellectual property secret.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source