Saving Seafood

What they’re saying: Local industries react to Trump’s trade war

July 9, 2018 — Local agricultural industries caught in the crossfire of President Trump’s trade disputes with some of the country’s biggest trading partners are increasingly worried that they will suffer from retaliatory tariffs on American goods.

Why it matters: From Florida to Wisconsin to Washington state, Trump risks threatening the very industries he pledged to protect on the campaign trail — and his tariffs could mean a brutal blow for the economy in states that he won in 2016.

What they’re saying:

In the Florida Keys, commercial fishermen are worried about the retaliatory tariffs China slapped Friday on 545 U.S. products, which target Florida lobster:

“At this moment I don’t know what is going to happen, we’re all just in limbo. We’ve been very fortunate over the last several years with the Chinese market.” — Gary Nichols, a lobster fisherman who voted for Trump, told CBS Miami.

Washington’s seed industry could face issues, too. Dave Armstrong, the CEO of Sakata Seed Company, told the Skagit Valley Herald that the company’s top customers are in Asia, Europe, Canada, and Mexico — and a prolonged trade war could cause the company to consider moving its operations elsewhere.

“It’s a global hub of seed movement. The actions being taken and threatened would absolutely add complexity and barriers to our ability to move seed in and out of the U.S.” — Dave Armstrong, the CEO of Sakata Seed Company

Read the full story at Axios

Lobsters caught in global tariff tit-for-tat

July 9, 2018 — Veteran lobsterman Billy Mahoney is already feeling the pinch – and not from the claws of his catch.

Mahoney sells his lobsters to a dealer in Massachusetts who, in turn, sells most of the product to an increasingly lobster-hungry China. The proposed tariffs between the U.S. and the world’s second-largest economy have already lowered the price Mahoney gets for his lobsters by 50 cents a pound.

If the tariffs imposed imposed Friday by the Trump administration hit as hard as expected, Mahoney predicts, “All hell is going to break loose as far as the price.” What’s more, China will turn to Canada for New England’s ocean delicacy, he says.

A Harvard graduate who sets out from Nahant, Mahoney has been trapping Homarus americanus for more than 40 years. At 70, he says he is close to retirement, but he has a brother in the business as well as four cousins who are bound to suffer if the tariffs linger.

Maine and Massachusetts together landed almost $700 million worth of lobster last year, 94 percent of the nation’s total. At the same time, exports from Maine to China increased more than 30 percent, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

But South Shore lobstermen, already hit hard by extended seasonal closures of their fishing grounds, might largely escape the latest blow to their industry.

Read the full story at The Patriot Ledger

Trade war with China may take a new victim: South Florida lobster fishermen

July 6, 2018 — First Irma, now a trade war.

Less than a year after Hurricane Irma tore through the Florida Keys, lobster fishermen are facing another hit from the trade war with China.

Tariffs set to take effect Friday threaten to bump up prices by 25 percent — an increase that could cool demand in the lucrative Chinese market, say experts.

“This is a major impact on our fishery,” said Jeff Cramer, who fishes out of Conch Key. “And just a year after we got wiped out by the worst hurricane we’ve had in recent memory.”

Before the Chinese market picked up a decade ago, the going rate for a pound of lobster was $3. Today, fishermen can get between $10 to $20 per pound from Chinese buyers, and commercial fishermen like Cramer now send up to 75 percent of their Florida spiny lobsters to China.

“The Chinese market saved the fisherman’s ass,” said Cramer.

But with the boom came a dependence: Cramer’s Chinese buyers say that retailers have no appetite for absorbing the cost of the tariff, meaning he likely will need to lower his prices or risk losing his biggest buyers when the lobster commercial fishing season opens Aug. 6.

When possible, businesses incorporate tariff costs into consumer prices. For example, steel, lumber and aluminum tariffs imposed by the Trump administration in the past year have pushed up building costs, affecting home prices as well. But margins in the lobster trade are already slim, and Cramer worries that competition from Australia and Brazil will toss Florida out of the market if prices go up.

Alaskans fret as Chinese, US tariffs go into effect

July 6, 2018 — The next phase of the Chinese-U.S. trade war kicked into effect on Friday, 6 July, as each country imposed USD 34 billion (EUR 28.9 billion) worth of tariffs on a range of goods that, on the Chinese side, include a variety of seafood products.

According to a list issued from the Ministry of Finance of the People’s Republic of China, more than 170 seafood products are subject to the new tariffs, which went into effect at 12:01 a.m. on 6 July. However, confusion remains as to exactly which products are subject to the tariffs – especially amongst those engaged in sending seafood to China for reprocessing and re-export.

That’s a big question for many involved in the seafood industry in Alaska, which relies heavily on Chinese labor to complete the difficult task of removing pinbones from much of its catch. In fact, in large part due to the seafood industry, China is Alaska’s largest trading partner, with hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of salmon, flatfish, and cod heading to China for reprocessing and re-export.

Glenn Reed, president of the Pacific Seafood Processors Association, which represents companies operating onshore processing plants for Alaska salmon, crab, and pollock, as well as Pacific cod, said there is still uncertainty on the issue.

“We’re watching the situation closely. We know we this could affect us all from fishermen, processors, support business, communities, the state, etc. We just don’t have good info at this point,” he told SeafoodSource via email. “We may not know the impact until after 6 July.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

US-China tariffs: What’s behind them, who stands to be hurt?

July 5, 2018 — President Donald Trump has boldly declared that trade wars are easy to win. He’s about to find out.

Barring a last-minute breakthrough, the Trump administration on Friday will start imposing tariffs on $34 billion in Chinese imports. And China will promptly strike back with tariffs on an equal amount of U.S. exports.

And just like that, a high-risk trade war between the world’s two biggest economies will begin — one that could quickly escalate.

“I see us running into a full collision course in a few days,” said Ashley Craig, a trade lawyer at Venable LLP. “It seems as if both sides are fairly dug in.”

Here’s a look at what’s happening this week and its likely impact.

WHAT IS THE U.S. DOING?

The White House last month announced plans to slap 25 percent tariffs on roughly 1,100 goods imported from China, worth $50 billion a year. It had originally proposed the tariffs in April, starting with 1,333 Chinese products. After receiving public feedback, the administration cut 515 imports from the blacklist and added 284 others.

Starting Friday, the U.S. will tax 818 Chinese products, worth $34 billion a year, from the original list. It won’t target the 284 additions, worth $16 billion, until it gathers further public comments.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Gloucester Daily Times

‘This is worrisome,’ Murkowski on Chinese sanctions to Alaska seafood

July 3, 2018 — China is slated to impose a 25 percent tariff on U.S. seafood — including Alaska’s — by the end of this week, as part of increasingly heated trade negotiations between the two nations.

According to a recent report by the McDowell Group, seafood is Alaska’s second largest employer — with 41,200 jobs created by the $2.1 billion industry. China is the state’s largest trading partner.

“This is worrisome, we’ll work this through with the administration,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski said of the sanctions, set to take effect on Friday, July 6.

Murkowski was in Anchorage Monday with U.S. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, as part of his tour around the state.

While worried about seafood, Murkowski said she is encouraged that China isn’t going after natural gas. In April, Gov. Bill Walker’s administration hoped the state’s potential partnership with China on a natural gas pipeline project could protect the state in a national trade war. But this latest threat to seafood indicates that may not be the case.

“It does raise a question about how they view what Alaska has available in terms of trade,” Murkowski said.

While in Alaska this weekend, Acosta visited a fishery in King Salmon.

Read the full story at KTVA

Canadian tariffs on US goods go into effect, but spare seafood industry

July 3, 2018 — Canada has placed tariffs valued at CAD 16.6 billion (USD 12.6 billion, EUR 10.8 billion) on American products as retaliation for a 25-percent tariff on steel and 10-percent tariff on aluminum the United States instituted earlier this year by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Canada’s tariffs took effect 1 July – Canada Day. While the new tariffs affect goods ranging from beer kegs to ball point pens, orange juice to candy to bourbon, they appear to have largely spared the seafood industry.

It’s an extraordinary situation for the two countries which traditionally tout their undefended border, close relationship, and are the world’s second-largest trading block.

More than USD 1.5 billion (EUR 1.3 billion) in goods and more than 300,000 people cross the U.S. Canada border every day. The value of trade crossing the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan is equal to all of Japan’s exports to the U.S. Canada is a bigger market for U.S. goods than the 27 countries of the European Community. For example, 4,000 shipments of ingredients for Campbell’s Soup products cross from the US into Canada each day and 3,500 travel from Canada into the U.S.

Since introduction of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1985, there has been a 350 percent rise in trade between the U.S. and Canada. Canada is one of the top five investor nations in the U.S. and is America’s primary energy source (oil, natural gas, and electricity), while Saudi Arabia is number three.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

MASSACHUSETTS: Sen. Elizabeth Warren pushes for new lobster markets

July 2, 2018 — U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren moved Friday to try to protect international markets for American lobsters, urging the U.S. trade representative to explore new markets to compensate for the detrimental impact of new Chinese import tariffs.

In a letter to Robert Lighthizer, the U.S. trade representative, Warren said the 25 percent tariffs to be imposed on American lobster imports after July 6 will economically harm American lobstermen and the fishing communities in which they live and operate their businesses.

“China is a large and growing market for lobsters, with total lobster imports from America topping $100 million in recent years,” Warren said in her letter. “Large Chinese tariffs on American lobster will effectively close off that market because China can substitute cheaper lobsters from Canada or Europe for American lobsters.”

The new Chinese tariffs on $50 billion worth of American goods, imposed in response to new tariffs ordered by President Donald Trump on Chinese imports into the United States, actually will mean that American lobster exporters will be paying the new 25 percent on top of the current 7 percent tariff — resulting in a tariff of 32 percent on imported American lobsters.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

NOAA Says Seafood for Reprocessing Exempt from Chinese Tariffs, but Rebate System May Impose Costs

June 28, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — NOAA has confirmed via email to people in the Alaska seafood industry that the 25% Chinese retaliatory tariff will not apply to re-processed products for export.

John Henderschedt, NMFS director of the Office of International Affairs and Seafood Inspection, wrote  “In consultation with Embassy Beijing, NOAA Fisheries has confirmed that the following products are not subject to the additional 25% tariff recently announced by the Chinese government:

-Imports of U.S. seafood that is processed in China for re-export and some fishmeal products.”

“Affected U.S. seafood exports arriving at Chinese ports on July 6 or later will be subject to the new tariff rate,” he said in an email dated Tuesday, June 26th.

There was some uncertainty following China’s June 15 announcement at the beginning of a long holiday weekend for the Dragon Boat Festival that prevented clarification until government offices re-opened last Tuesday, June 19th, according to Jim Gilmore, Director of Public Affairs for the At-Sea Processors Association.

“Really, no one knew at that time, so the news coverage was of an issue with a lot of confusion and not much time for the U.S. government to get clarification.  The holiday didn’t help matters, but it might also have been that the Chinese government language wasn’t clear.  Not sure what factors were all at play,” Gilmore said.

One unresolved issue is that China has two types of import exemptions for re-processing for export.  One involves no tariff, for products that are exempt, and the other collects the tariff, but then rebates the value back to the company when the product is exported.

One sentence in the Chinese announcement suggests that the 25% tariff will be applied to everything, but then rebated for products that are exported.  When asked about this, Henderschedt had no comment.

If this is the final interpretation, the tariffs will add significant costs for exporters, even though they will ultimately get the 25% tariff refunded.  For example, a Chinese plant that purchases 1000 tons of cod for re-processing and pays $3.6 million, would have to pay an additional $900,000 to bring the product into the country, but then get this money back when the product was exported.  This adds costs to the process, even if the tariffs are ultimately not applied.

Ultimately, the answer will come after July 6th, when importers of record have to deal with Chinese customs officers.

Jim Gilmore says not much of offshore Alaska’s pollock is re-processed.  His group, the At-Sea Processors Association,  represents the Bering Sea pollock factory trawlers. He said that’s more common with salmon and cod.

But shore plants, especially in the Gulf of Alaska, export a lot of H&G pollock for reprocessing.  In fact, Trident recently spent millions of dollars in the last several years to upgrade its plant in Kodiak to efficiently produce a frozen H&G product.

Also the Bering Sea Amendment 80 factory trawler flatfish fleet’s catch goes to China for reprocessing, especially yellowfin sole, according to Chris Woodley, executive director of the group’s trade association, the Groundfish Forum.

The vast majority of the U.S. exports of frozen seafood to China are reprocessed in China and then re-exported, Woodley said.  Such U.S. exports to China that are then re-exported from China are not subject to Chinese duties or the Value Added Tax (VAT).  However, U.S. seafood exports that are imported for consumption in China face high tariff rates.  For example, frozen flatfish species, and other Alaska seafood exports to China that are consumed in China currently face a duty of 10 percent and are also subject to a 13 percent  VAT.

The Dragon Boat Festival is held annually in honor of poet Qu Yuan, who drowned himself in a river in 278 BC, as a political protest. Villagers tried to save the beloved figure in their little boats, but when they couldn’t find him, they threw rice in the water in the hopes that the fish would eat the rice, and not the poet and activist, during the Warring States period of Chinese history.

This story originally appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.

Tariffs ding commercial fishing industry

June 27, 2018 — Fishermen and seafood harvesters may take a major trade hit with the announcement of new tariffs from China, though the details still aren’t clear.

The country announced new tariffs on a broad cross-section of American seafood products on June 15 in response to a U.S tariff hike on imported Chinese products. If the tariffs are approved, China will apply a 25 percent tax to items like Pacific salmon, cod, Alaska pollock, flatfish, crab, shellfish and other commonly exported seafoods.

China is a major trade partner for the Alaskan seafood industry. Processors regularly ship salmon that have been headed and gutted to China to finish the processing and packaging before being re-exported to the rest of the world. China is also a major consumer of seafood products within its borders, and a 25 percent tariff could push down imports.

It’s possible the tariffs won’t be implemented at all, or there may be exceptions, said Garrett Evridge, an economist with the McDowell Group.

“At this point, there’s a lot of outstanding information that we’re still trying to get our fingers on,” he said. “It’s actually unclear as to whether re-exported seafood is going to be excluded.”

According to an announcement from the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, multiple contacts in China have indicated that customs officials would exclude products intended for reprocessing and export.

“It is not yet clear how product entering China will be differentiated between export and domestic consumption upon entry or at what point a tariff and/or credit will be applied,” the June 22 announcement states. “This is a developing situation and ASMI will continue to provide updates as information becomes available.”

The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute has maintained a Chinese office in Hong Kong since 1997. On a recent trade mission to China, Gov. Bill Walker took several representatives of the seafood industry with him specifically to build relationships between Chinese and American companies for seafood trade.

Read the full story at the Peninsula Clarion