Saving Seafood

President Trump Rescinds Obama National Ocean Policy; Issues New Executive Order

June 19, 2018 (Saving Seafood) — President Trump has rescinded the 2010 National Ocean Policy, in an Executive Order on oceans and environment issued today.

The Order formally revokes Executive Order 13547, signed by President Obama. Among other initiatives, it established the National Ocean Policy and created Regional Planning Bodies (RPBs) to coordinate ocean planning and development off the nation’s coasts. The RPBs will be abolished as a result of the new Order.

In their place, the Order calls for the establishment of the Ocean Policy Committee, which will be primarily comprised of the heads of relevant federal agencies and will serve as the main venue for interagency cooperation on ocean planning issues. The Committee will also focus on improving the collection and dissemination of scientific data within and outside the government, as well as facilitate communication between the government and members of the private sector.

The text of the full Executive Order can be read here

The following statement on the Order was released by the National Ocean Policy Coalition:

In response to today’s Executive Order on ocean policy, National Ocean Policy Coalition Managing Director Jack Belcher has issued the following statement:

“Today’s action is a welcome development that embraces principles we all agree on, such as encouraging data and information sharing, interagency and inter-jurisdictional collaboration, and partnerships within and among the public and private sectors.  At the same time, it removes a significant cloud of uncertainty that has been hovering over a wide range of commercial and recreational interests that represent a broad cross-section of the American economy, threatening domestic jobs, economic activity, and recreational opportunities through new and unauthorized bureaucracies, mandates to federal agencies, and actions that could needlessly prohibit, limit, or delay access to public lands.”

“This announcement will help ensure a future in which the American people can continue to receive the diverse array of economic, recreational, and societal benefits that the oceans provide for generations to come.”

Established in 2010, the National Ocean Policy Coalition is an organization of diverse interests representing sectors and entities that support tens of millions of jobs, contribute trillions of dollars to the U.S. economy, and seek to ensure ocean policies that best benefit the National interest, including protection of the commercial and recreational value of the oceans, marine-related natural resources, and terrestrial lands of the United States.

 

China is the biggest market for Alaska seafood exports. The tariff war is raising concerns.

June 19, 2018 — Alaska seafood is among the industries caught in the growing trade battle between the United States and China, and it’s not clear yet exactly what the outcome will be.

After President Donald Trump last week announced tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese goods, China responded by announcing tariffs of the “same scale and the same strength.” China said it would impose 25 percent tariffs on U.S. goods worth $50 billion.

On Monday, things escalated further when Trump responded by threatening China with tariffs on $200 billion of goods.

Alaska’s seafood industry officials and members of the state’s congressional delegation said they were concerned about the tariffs at a time when the state is trying to strengthen ties with China, its largest trading partner and the biggest market for Alaska seafood exports.

“While there are many unknowns as to the impacts of these newly announced tariffs, I urge President Trump to work towards a trade policy with China that protects these critical markets for our seafood industry,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said in emailed statement.

Read the full story at the Alaska Daily News

 

China threatens tariffs on US lobsters as business booms

June 18, 2018 — A set of retaliatory tariffs released by China on Friday includes a plan to tax American lobster exports, potentially jeopardizing one of the biggest markets for the premium seafood.

Chinese officials announced the planned lobster tariff along with hundreds of other tariffs amid the country’s escalating trade fight with the United States. China said it wants to place new duties on items such as farm products, autos and seafood starting on July 6.

The announcement could have major ramifications for the U.S. seafood industry and for the economy of the state of Maine, which is home to most of the country’s lobster fishery. China’s interest in U.S. lobster has grown exponentially in recent years, and selling to China has become a major focus of the lobster industry.

“Maine’s lobster industry is an irreplaceable piece of our state’s economy that supports thousands of jobs and entire coastal communities,” the state’s congressional delegation said in a statement. “Just two weeks ago, the Maine delegation heard directly from our state’s lobster industry about the economic hardship a trade war with China would cause them.”

The delegation — Republican Sen. Susan Collins, Independent Sen. Angus King; Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree and Republican Rep. Bruce Poliquin — said they plan to outline their concerns to federal trade officials.

“Hopefully cooler heads can prevail and we can get a solution,” said Matt Jacobson, executive director of the Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative. “It’s a year round customer in China. This isn’t good news at all.”

Read the full story at the Associated Press

China hikes tariffs on US soybeans, electric cars, fish

June 18, 2018 — China fired back Saturday in a spiraling trade dispute with President Donald Trump by raising import duties on a $34 billion list of American goods including soybeans, electric cars and whiskey.

The government said it was responding in “equal scale” to Trump’s tariff hike on Chinese goods in a conflict over Beijing’s trade surplus and technology policy that companies worry could quickly escalate and chill global economic growth.

China “doesn’t want a trade war” but has to “fight back strongly,” said a Commerce Ministry statement. It said Beijing also was scrapping agreements to narrow its multibillion-dollar trade surplus with the United States by purchasing more American farm goods, natural gas and other products.

The United States and China have the world’s biggest trading relationship but official ties are increasingly strained over complaints Beijing’s industry development tactics violate its free-trade pledges and hurt American companies. Europe, Japan and other trading partners raise similar complaints, but Trump has been unusually direct about challenging Beijing and threatening to disrupt such a large volume of exports.

“In this trade war, it’s the U.S. who is playing the role of provocateur, while China plays defense,” said the Global Times, a newspaper published by the ruling Communist Party. “China is a powerful guardian and has enough ammunition to defend existing trade rules and fairness.”

Beijing will impose an additional 25 percent tariff starting July 6 on 545 products from the United States including soybeans, electric cars, orange juice, whiskey, lobsters, salmon and cigars, according to the Ministry of Finance.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Boston.com

There’s Something Fishy About U.S.-Canada Trade Wars

June 15, 2018 — If U.S. politicians’ love affair with tariffs seems novel, it’s really the latest installment in an on-again, off-again romance. And it’s one that has been much more passionate in the past. In the decades after the Civil War, the “tariff question” was the biggest issue in American elections. On everything from wool to sugar, the U.S. government slapped steep fees on goods passing through its borders. These tariffs protected domestic industry and paid the government’s bills.

But sometimes tariffs also led to trade wars with America’s neighbor to the north. Today, America and Canada fight over dairy and aluminum. In the late 19th century, they fought over frozen herring—and these trade wars meant real violence. When T. Aubrey Byrne alighted from his train in Gloucester, Massachusetts, on the last day of 1894, he stepped into the middle of one such war.

Depending on who you asked, Byrne was either the Treasury’s best special agent, a man who had saved the government fortunes by uncovering massive smuggling rings—or he was a failed ranch hand and ex-newspaperman, a paranoiac who saw fraud in others’ honest toil. But his superiors at Treasury approved of the job he’d done breaking up operations to illicitly import sugar and Chinese laborers. Now Byrne sniffed another conspiracy: a plot by merchants and captains in Gloucester, the capital of New England fishing, to avoid taxes on fish from Newfoundland.

Every winter, a fleet from Gloucester sailed to the island—still a British colony—to fill their holds with frozen herring. At less than a cent apiece, herring would be eaten by humans or used as bait for the more lucrative cod and halibut fisheries. Starting with one entrepreneurial vessel in 1855, by the 1890s almost 100 ships each year went to Newfoundland from Gloucester. And each year tens of millions of spawning herring swam into the bay only to sail out of it.

Read the full story at The Atlantic

American Scallop Association Delivers Letter to Wilbur Ross, Participates in NOAA Fish Fry

June 11, 2018 — WASHINGTON — The following was released by the American Scallop Association:

American Scallop Association (ASA) leadership traveled to Washington last Wednesday to participate in the 43rd Annual NOAA Fish Fry. In Washington, they hand-delivered a letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross regarding current issues facing the American scallop industry.

“This is the fourth year that we have participated in the NOAA Fish Fry,” said ASA General Counsel, Attorney John Whiteside. “Attending the NOAA Fish Fry gives us the opportunity to interact with policy-level decision makers on the domestic and global issues that affect us most.”

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross visits the ASA tent at the NOAA Fish Fry.

In the letter, they outline several issues currently affecting the domestic, U.S. wild-caught, Atlantic sea scallop industry, including a request to restart the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations due to international price undercutting issues.

Specifically, as a result of the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), the Canadian scallop industry now operates at an 8 percent advantage over its American counterpart. The agreement gives Canadian-based companies an unfair advantage in their exports to the European Union, making U.S. prices uncompetitive.

“The ASA had a discussion focused on international trade with US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross about how CETA-rigged prices are causing irreparable harm to US companies trying to export lobster and scallops to the EU,” said Attorney Whiteside. The ASA urged the Secretary to resume the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations as soon as possible and be steadfast in demanding that tariff rates for fishery products like scallops and lobster mirror those set in the CETA treaty.”

ASA General Counsel, John Whiteside, delivers letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

ASA members buy and sell over 75 percent of U.S. Atlantic sea scallops landed annually and are leaders in the domestic and international sea scallop trade. Headquartered along the Eastern Seaboard, members employ over 4,000 people throughout their domestic and international operations.

The NOAA Fish Fry gives industry representatives the opportunity to draw awareness to issues facing fisheries across the cuntry while bringing industry stakeholders and top government officials together under one roof. This year, ASA members were visited by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, and President Trump’s nominee to head NOAA, Barry Myers. ASA members are NOAA Fish Fry regulars, and have represented the scallop industry for years at the event. ASA members that attended the event include: John F. Whiteside, Jr., Ross Paasche, Joseph Furtado, Paul Joly, Master Chef George Karousos, Barbara Cournoyer, Brittany Bushee, and Steve Zevitas.

ASA General Counsel, John Whiteside, meets with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

Read the letter to Secretary Ross here

About the American Scallop Association

The ASA was founded in 1992 to foster a better public understanding of the importance of the scallop industry and to represent and promote the interests of the domestic, U.S. wild-caught, Atlantic sea scallop industry. Its aim is to support ASA members and all other affiliated interests to ensure a viable and long-term future for the Atlantic sea scallop fishery through effective dialogue, consultation, collaboration and partnerships.

House Committee Hears from Stakeholders on Importance of a Healthy Ocean Economy

June 6, 2018 — WASHINGTON — The following was released by the House Committee on Natural Resources:   

Today, House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) and Subcommittee on Water, Power and Oceans staff held a roundtable with representatives from ocean-dependent communities to discuss opportunities for regulatory reform that will provide certainty for working waterfronts and promote vibrant and sustainable coastal economies. Chairman Bishop issued the following statement:

“Working waterfronts and our nation’s vast ocean resources are essential to coastal economies, generating billions of dollars each year. Today we heard from real people whose livelihoods depend on a healthy ocean economy and their message was clear. Without a rational regulatory framework, responsible economic growth and success is at risk. What we learned today will help Congress do its part and create regulatory certainty that will enable this important industries to create better opportunities for Americans.

“I applaud President Trump for declaring June National Ocean Month, and for underscoring the importance of lessening the regulatory burdens impacting our ocean industries and communities.”

Background:

President Donald Trump declared June 2018 National Ocean Month, emphasizing the importance of regulatory streamlining and supporting ocean industries. The roundtable provided a forum for people who make a living on the water to share their perspectives with the Committee.

Concerns and comments from representatives focused on issues surrounding the Antiquities Act, President Obama’s National Ocean Policy, the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and more.

The Committee is working to advance several pieces of legislation to benefit coastal communities including, H.R. 5787, the Strengthening Coastal Communities Act of 2018 (Rep. Neal Dunn, R-Fla.).

Learn more about the House Committee on Natural Resources here.

 

China to Cut Import Tariffs on More Than 200 Seafood Products on July 1, 2018

June 4, 2017 — SEAFOOD NEWS — China will cut tariffs for more than 200 seafood imports as part of a move to lower tariffs for nearly 1,500 consumer goods, effective July 1, the Chinese Ministry for Finance announced last night.

On average, tariffs for all goods on the list were cut by 56 percent, according to the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council.

Tariff rates on major seafood imports, such as frozen pollock, cod fillets, sockeye salmon, and halibut, will drop from 10% to 7%. Frozen mussels, scallops and oysters will be 10% rather than 14%.  Fresh or chilled crab will be cut from 14% to 7% and fresh scallops, as an example, from 14% to 10%.

“Significantly reducing the import tariffs for daily consumer goods is conducive to expanding China’s opening-up and serves as a major measure and action of the country’s initiative to open its market,” the Ministry’s statement quoted an unnamed official of the commission as saying.

The average tariff rate for cultured and fished aquatic products and processed food such as mineral water will be cut from 15.2 percent to 6.9 percent, according to a statement released after the meeting.

The announcement came less than 48 hours before U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross lands in Beijing for “wide-ranging talks aimed at addressing American frustrations with China’s $375 billion bilateral trade surplus with the United States,” according to a May 31 report in the New York Times.

Ross will be in China from June 2 to June 4, according to the Xinhua news agency.

Last Tuesday, President Trump threatened further tariffs on Chinese goods, noting that China’s average tariff on imports was more than three times as high as US tariffs and nearly double that of the European Union. Ross announced that the US would begin imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum from Canada, Mexico and the European Union at midnight on Thursday.

New York Times reporter Keith Bradsher noted that by cutting tariffs in more than 1,000 lightly traded categories, China could end up reducing its average tariff considerably without actually running the risk of a big surge in imports.

“The goods seeing cuts are not relevant to trade with the U.S.,” Derek Scissors, a trade specialist at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank told Bradsher. “For China, it fits the goal of moving up the value chain — heavy subsidies for semiconductors and now less protection for textiles and consumer appliances.”

This story was originally published by Seafood News, it is republished here with permission.

Delayed seismic testing decision puts energy industry at odds with Trump administration

May 29, 2018 — WASHINGTON — The Trump administration’s long-awaited decision on whether to allow seismic testing for oil and gas beneath the Atlantic Ocean is causing heartburn for the the energy industry, which eagerly awaits the fulfillment of President Donald Trump’s push to allow offshore drilling in U.S. coastal waters.

Five seismic survey companies want federal permission to shoot loud, pressurized air blasts into the ocean every 10 to 12 seconds around-the-clock for months at a time over 330,000 square miles of ocean from Florida to the Delaware bay, in search of fossil fuel deposits beneath the ocean floor.

If approved, the activity would reverse an Obama-era denial of testing permits in the Atlantic Ocean and represent a major advance of Trump’s “America-First Offshore Energy Strategy.”

After the public-comment period ended in July 2017, many stakeholders expected the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to quickly approve the “incidental harassment authorizations” needed to move the permit applications forward.

But more than 10 months later, NOAA, one of two federal agencies that will decide the matter, still hasn’t approved the authorizations. The IHA would allow the seismic testing to harass or injure small numbers of marine mammals, which would otherwise be prohibited under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Read the full story at the Mclatchy DC Bureau

 

Trump takes aim at federal bureaucracy with new executive orders altering civil service protections

May 25, 2018 — President Trump issued three executive orders Friday aimed at overhauling the federal bureaucracy by making it easier to fire poor performers, sharply curtailing the amount of time federal employees can be paid for union work and directing agencies to negotiate tougher union contracts.

The orders could result in the biggest changes in a generation to civil service protections long enjoyed by federal workers.

White House officials said the goal of the executive orders is to make the workforce of two million federal employees more efficient and responsive to the public and to improve morale.

Read the full story at the Washington Post