Saving Seafood

Seafood, Alaska’s top export, is omitted from federal trade data

July 22, 2020 — Most Alaskans are surprised to learn that seafood is by far Alaska’s top export, the source of the state’s largest manufacturing base and its No. 1 private employer.

More surprising is that those facts are not included in the official trade sheet for Alaska provided by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

The information on the USTR website, for example, incorrectly claims that petroleum and coal were Alaska’s top exports in 2018. But seafood has been state’s top export by far for decades.

“Seafood comprises over half of Alaska’s annual export value, averaging $3.3 billion annually over the past decade, averaging $5.6 billion from 20170-2018,” reports the Alaska Resource Development Council on its fisheries page.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

United States and China reach agreement to deescalate trade war

December 13, 2019 — The United States and China announced an agreement in which China will make structural reforms to its trading policies and strengthen its intellectual property protections in exchange for a reduction of current and proposed U.S. tariffs.

The U.S. will cancel its plan to implement another round of tariff increases later this month, and will reduce its 15 percent tariffs to 7.5 percent on USD 120 billion (EUR 107.9 billion) worth of Chinese goods. It will leave in place 25 percent tariffs on an additional USD 250 billion (EUR 224.8 billion) of Chinese imports, however, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). The USTR did not identify which goods would see reduced tariffs.

Read the full story at Seafood Source