Saving Seafood

Fact checking Trump’s claims about the Maine lobster industry

June 25, 2020 — In another tweet rife with falsehoods, President Trump on Wednesday alleged that his predecessor, Barack Obama, “destroyed the lobster and fishing industry in Maine.”

He added: “Now it’s back, bigger and better than anyone ever thought possible. Enjoy your ‘lobstering’ and fishing! Make lots of money!”

The truth is that in 2016, the last year of Obama’s presidency, Maine had a record lobster catch. Not that Obama had anything to do with it, but during his eight years in office, Maine’s lobster catch nearly doubled in landings and value.

The catch rose from less than 70 million pounds in 2008 to more than 132 million pounds in 2016, which remains the record. In the same period, the value of the catch surged from $245 million to a record $540 million.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe

White House pledges support for lobster industry

June 24, 2020 — President Donald Trump today signed an executive order to support the lobster industry, following conversations that started with the roundtable discussion in Maine on June 5.

“It’s a promise made, promise delivered,” said John Horstman, director of media affairs and special assistant to the president.

Though details are still developing, the executive order is expected to give the lobster industry the same assistance farmers received as a result of the retaliatory tariffs coming from China.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

MAINE: Green Plate Special: Eat more lobster — this is the kind of ask we really like

June 22, 2020 — Maine’s iconic lobster industry has taken its share of lumps in the past year. Stricter 2019 quotas on the herring catch drove bait prices up. A cold 2019 spring meant the bugs molted later than usual, delaying when lobstermen could bring popular soft-shell lobsters (sometimes sold as “new-shell”) to market. On Sept. 1, China raised tariffs on live, American-caught lobster by 10 percent. And throughout the winter, scientists, environmentalists and the courts demanded the lobster fishery change to better protect endangered right whales  (the population hovers at just 400). The overall lobster haul dipped by 16% between 2018 and 2019, although harvesters were buoyed to some extent by higher than normal prices.

Yarmouth resident Rebecca Spear — wife, daughter-in-law and mother of lobster fishermen — explains that when the COVID-19 crisis first hit Maine in March, she didn’t immediately panic over how the pandemic might affect the 2020 income of the lobstermen and boys in her life (her 10-year-old son, Jack, holds a student lobster and crab license). “That’s always the slow season for us,” Spear said.

But as restaurant service in Maine and across the country remains truncated leading into prime lobster-eating season, she is worried now. Selling direct to customers was a good springtime stopgap solution. Spear is grateful that Maine eaters have sought out more locally sourced food as the national food supply has struggled in response to the pandemic. She urges Mainers to continue to buy lobster early and often this summer to help keep the fleet afloat. Here’s my suggestion: buy a few extra, cook them all for dinner, and serve the leftovers with eggs for breakfast.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

China unlikely to consider lowering of lobster tariffs, despite Trump’s threat

June 11, 2020 — On Friday, 5 June, at a meeting with commercial lobstermen from the U.S. state of Maine, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose new tariffs on imported Chinese and European Union goods if they did not eliminate their tariffs on U.S. lobsters.

At the meeting, Trump appointed U.S. Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Director Peter Navarro the task of identifying additional Chinese and European products to hit with tariffs as a means of pressuring Beijing to eliminate all tariffs on American lobsters.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Trump to hold roundtable on commercial fishing while in Maine

June 4, 2020 — President Donald Trump will hold a roundtable discussion with parties involved in the commercial fishing industry during his visit to Maine on Friday, according to a White House official.

The president is slated to come to the Pine Tree State to visit the Puritan Medical Products facility in Guilford, which manufactures medical swabs used in coronavirus testing. The Guilford company is one of the two largest swab manufacturers in the world and is opening a new swab manufacturing facility in Pittsfield this summer to meet the surging demand for swabs.

The company is using $75.5 million in federal funds under the Defense Production Act to open that facility.

The president is expected to discuss regulations and how to expand economic opportunities for the commercial fishing industry, according to the official.

Details of when exactly the visit will take place have not been disclosed.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

US considering revocation of Hong Kong’s special trade status

May 29, 2020 — United States Secretary of State Michael Pompeo announced on 27 May that the State Department is recommending the revocation of Hong Kong’s special status, which would eliminate special tariff exemptions to the region.

Hong Kong’s special status was created in 1997, five years before the United Kingdom handed control of Hong Kong over to China with special conditions. The status gives Hong Kong special trade and economic status benefits, and the region currently has a zero tariff rate on U.S. imports.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Trump mulling pause in trade wars to ease economic stress

March 30, 2020 — U.S. President Donald Trump is considering a proposal that would allow companies to defer their payments on imported goods subject to tariffs for 90 days, as a means to ease the financial strain hitting the American economy as a result of the coronavirus crisis.

Though Trump has denied he is considering the proposal, Bloomberg reported on 25 March his administration has debated the deferment program with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and other government agencies. White House Economic Advisor Larry Kudlow in particular has advocated for the move to allow the deferral of tariff payments, Bloomberg reported.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Tariffs on Chinese goods to remain in place, Trump says

March 20, 2020 — U.S. President Donald Trump will not suspend hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of tariffs his administration has imposed on Chinese goods, despite calls from U.S. business associations to do so to alleviate economic hardship brought on by the coronavirus outbreak.

On Wednesday, 18 March, more than 160 business belonging to the group Americans for Free Trade wrote a letter to Trump asking for the suspension of tariffs on Chinese-made goods, claiming that doing so would give the U.S. economy a USD 75 billion (EUR 70.3 billion) boost, equivalent to 0.4 percent of U.S. gross domestic product.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

JOHN SACKTON: How coronavirus could impact North American seafood

February 20, 2020 — A lot of people in the seafood industry are thinking about coronavirus (COVID-19). The major impact has been on shipping, tourism, and travel, all of which are vital to the North American seafood industry.

The question is whether this is a short-term event like a hurricane or political strike that impacts one area of our supply chain, or if this is a year-long global pandemic, leading to big changes in behavior in our markets.

Clearly we don’t know yet, despite people like the CEO of Mowi saying it is a short term event. However, we can already see some supply and demand disruptions, and we can prepare for others. After thinking about this for the last couple of weeks, here are some preliminary ideas.

Some products disrupted more than others initially

Most seafood products have not suddenly changed in price over the past few weeks. If you look at Urner Barry’s dashboard, the majority of items remain green, showing rising or steady prices.

Read the full opinion piece at Undercurrent News

Russia-Alaska seafood trade remains a one-way street benefiting Russia

February 19, 2020 — Lost in the headlines about the hits to seafood sales from the Trump administration’s trade war with China is another international barrier that’s been going on far longer.

In August 2014, Russia placed an embargo on all U.S. food products to retaliate for sanctions the U.S and other Western countries imposed over the invasion of Ukraine. The ban included Alaska seafood, which at the time accounted for more than $61 million in annual sales to Russia, primarily pink salmon roe.

But here’s the bigger hurt: For the nearly six years that the embargo has been in place, no corresponding limits have ever been imposed on Russian seafood coming into the U.S.

At first, Alaska seafood companies and the state’s congressional delegation made some “tit for tat” noise about imposing a ban on Russian seafood. But in fact, the value of Russian imports has grown nearly 70% since 2014 — and it all comes into the U.S. almost entirely duty-free.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News