February 27, 2025 — U.S. President Donald Trump said he is planning to announce tariffs of up to 25 percent on goods from the European Union.
Trump, speaking to press after the first meeting of his administration’s cabinet secretaries, said he is planning to announce tariffs of up to 25 percent on a range of goods “soon.”
February 4, 2025 — U.S. President Donald Trump has paused planned 25 percent tariffs on Canadian goods, barring a 10 percent carveout for energy, following a conversation with Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Trump announced on his Truth Social social media platform that Canada has “agreed to ensure we have a secure Northern Border” as part of a CAD 1.3 billion (USD EUR ) border plan. The move came just hours after he also balked at applying 25 percent tariffs to Mexico for a month, based on similar promises that the country would increase security at its border with the U.S.
February 3, 2025 — U.S. President Donald Trump announced on his social media platform Truth Social that he is pausing planned 25 percent tariffs on Mexico for one month following a conversation with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.
Trump announced a set of sweeping tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China on 1 February, following through on a proposal he made in November 2024.
November 27, 2024 — U.S. President-elect Donald Trump proposed big hikes in tariffs on all goods from Canada, Mexico, and China on 25 November in a move that would affect one-fifth of all U.S. seafood imports by value.
Trump, posting on his Truth Social platform, said he would charge tariffs of 25 percent on all products from Mexico and Canada and 10 percent tariffs on goods from China – above any existing tariffs.
October 8, 2024 — The following was released by the Monterey Bay Aquarium:
With a new assessment showing Pacific bluefin tuna rebounding, Pacific nations can build on progress with a long-term management plan
For the first time in the 25-year history of the program, Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch today released new assessments for Pacific bluefin tuna fisheries in the Eastern Pacific region and assigned a yellow (good alternative) rating to Pacific bluefin tuna caught by fisheries in California and Mexico using FAD-free purse seines, and the U.S. pole-and-line fishery.
Like all bluefin tuna, these fisheries were previously rated red (avoid) due to overfishing across the Pacific. The assessment did not include an update to Mexico’s ranching operations, which are still rated red.
September 13, 2024 — Fishing vessels registered with China, Russia, Mexico and a host of other nations will no longer be able to refuel or resupply at U.S. ports starting next month, federal environmental regulators said this week.
The port denials, issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, come after the agency identified more than a dozen nations with vessels that have engaged in illegal, unreported or unregulated fishing activities — some of which has affected sharks and endangered marine life.
In a statement Tuesday, NOAA said that its decision to pull port privileges for the designated nations is the result of a two-year consultation process with each country.
“We encourage them to address the issues and improve their fisheries management and enforcement practices,” the agency wrote. Because the nations in question failed to take corrective action, NOAA considers them “negatively certified” and revoked port privileges.
July 19, 2023 — U.S. President Joe Biden will not issue an embargo on Mexican wildlife products, which he was entitled to do after Mexico was found in breach of a U.S. law requiring federal action against countries found to be violating the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
The U.S. Secretary of the Interior’s Department of Fish and Wildlife found Mexico in breach of the Pelly Amendment in May 2023, requiring Biden to decide whether to take punitive trade action against Mexico or explain his reason for not doing so. Mexico has not adequately protected the critically endangered totoaba from fishing or trading, which has “diminished the effectiveness” of CITES, according to the declaration. Illegal fishing for the totoaba has also resulted in the deaths of numerous critically endangered vaquita porpoises.
May 31, 2023 — A study recently published in Science Advances providing before and after assessment of the impacts of Mexico’s Revillagigedo National Park claims there have been no negative consequences for the fishing industry.
The study, performed by a team of U.S. and Mexican researchers, found evidence that Mexico’s industrial fishing sector had no economic losses five years after the creation of the national park. Revillagigedo National Park was created in 2017 and protects 148,087 square kilometers of ocean south of the Baja California peninsula in the Pacific Ocean.
April 10, 2023 — The U.S. Department of the Interior has arrived at a settlement of a lawsuit demanding it certify Mexico as not adequately protecting the critically endangered totoaba and vaquita porpoise.
The lawsuit, which was filed in 2020 in the U.S. Court of International Trade by the Center for Biological Diversity, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Animal Welfare Institute, demands the U.S. government certify Mexico under a U.S. law called the Pelly Amendment, which would allow the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden to embargo the import of wildlife products from Mexico, including shrimp and fish. The U.S. imported around USD 745 million (EUR 687 million) of seafood from Mexico in 2022.
May 24, 2022 — At Hooked on Seafood, red snapper fetches a premium price. For fishermen, the tasty fruit of the Gulf of Mexico is like striking gold.
“Red snapper is the hottest commodity in the U.S., here in this border,” Hooked on Seafood owner Chris Johnson said.
But its high demand attracts schools of poachers from across the border.
“They’re taking our money out of our waters and selling it right back to us, and we’re paying to do it every day,” Johnson continued.
He’s a fishmonger and fisherman on Texas’ South Padre Island. He bellows a decades-long lament — illegal fishing operations from Mexico zip through the boundary waters poaching red snapper, shark, and shrimp by the thousands.