Saving Seafood

National Fisherman: Tax to Grind

November 2, 2018 — Everyone is talking tariffs. First it was anticipation, and now we’re in reality check, keeping an eye on the long-term consequences.

My first instinct with the tariffs was to gather information and watch what happens. There’s no denying our federal government is in fickle hands. The tariffs could have been canceled as easily and swiftly as they were declared. So wait and see seemed the best course of action.

Of course, I’m not a fisherman, processor or retailer. Wait and see is a luxury for me. And now it’s also a luxury for the purveyors of many itemized seafood products that have been granted dispensation from the tariffs.

As the deadline inched closer this summer, fisheries with decent lobbying power began to appeal to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to get a pass for their product — meaning the United States would not add a tariff to those products being sold into Chinese markets (most of which are already taxed as exports). In the case of U.S. seafood products being processed in China and reimported to the U.S. market, the government also granted a waiver on Chinese import taxes for some products.

The result was good for many stakeholders — they got the pass they need to stay competitive. But fisheries that don’t have access to Capitol Hill are left out there alone to bear the brunt of the tariffs on their own. They are now the guinea pigs for the whole industry.

Read the full editorial at National Fisherman

 

ALASKA: Alaska gubernatorial hopefuls Dunleavy, Begich square off in fish survey

November 1, 2018 — If Republican candidate Mike Dunleavy wins his bid to become the next governor of Alaska on Tuesday, look for an all-out effort by the state to expand its seafood export markets but not a direct challenge of president Donald Trump’s tough trade policies.

“A governor of one state clearly doesn’t set trade policy for the nation,” he said in one of several responses to a survey on commercial fishing organized by the Kodiak Chamber of Commerce.

Democratic candidate Mark Begich, meanwhile, would bring together a bipartisan group of governors from other states to pressure the federal government into changing course.

“As governor, I won’t sit on the sidelines when national policies hurt Alaska, like Trump’s trade war with China,” he said.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Alaska seafood leaders talk tariffs, competition from Russia and Canada

October 31, 2018 — Mark Begich, Alaska’s Democratic gubernatorial candidate, made a cameo at the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute’s All Hands on Deck meeting in Anchorage this week.

“If you want to be successful, you’ve got to put money behind it and market the product,” Begich said in support of the ASMI mission during opening remarks on Monday, Oct. 29.

Despite the too-close-to-call governor’s race, tariffs are the leading topic at the meeting this week.

Alaska’s seafood industry enjoyed a record export total in 2017 of more than 1 billion pounds of seafood with expectations that the trend would continue. However, the complex matrix of Alaska seafood’s global markets and international processing was further complicated by the implementation of several new layers of export and import tariffs on varying products.

Alaska’s proximity to China has long allowed a significant portion of the head and gut fleets’ harvest to be exported to China for final processing and reimportation to the domestic market.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

 

Higher U.S./China tariffs could be ‘game changer,’ fishing industry fears

October 24, 2018 — It’s been a month since the Trump administration activated 10 percent tariffs on another $200 billion in Chinese imports and that move has already affected the fishing industry from scallopers to lobstermen, especially Eastern Fisheries located along the New Bedford waterfront.

With the tariffs set to increase to 25 percent at the start of 2019, that could cause catastrophic effects throughout large fishing corporations, economists and companies told The Standard-Times.

“That’s a game changer,” Executive Vice President of Eastern Fisheries Joseph Furtado said. “I think we all feel that the 10 percent is more of a paper cut than it is anything else at this point. And we can work through it.

″…We don’t think the 10 percent is the end of the world, but the 25 percent, that is certainly a dynamic game changer and there’s a lot of variability in how that could all reposition itself.”

Generally, tariffs range from 5 percent to 8 percent, UMass Dartmouth economy professor Randy Hall said.

“There are very few industries that can absorb a 25 percent increase of cost,” Hall said.

Eastern Fisheries operates the largest scallop fleet in the industry and has facilities in the U.S., China, Europe and Japan.

Due to its size and international scale, it’s likely to be the only New Bedford company that’s affected by the tariffs, according to economists and Eastern Fisheries.

Prior to Sept. 24, Eastern would use its facilities in China to process a portion of its overall catch. It would then import the catch to other countries but also back into the United States without a tariff or tax.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

ALASKA: Bristol Bay king crab fishery set to open with a record-low quota

October 16, 2018 — Bering Sea commercial crabbing starts this week, with the smallest quota for Bristol Bay red king crab in more than 30 years at 4.3 million pounds, a 35 percent decrease from last year’s 6.6 million pounds.

The last time there was such a low number was in 1985, at 4.1 million pounds, according to Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Ethan Nichols in Unalaska.

Nichols expects fewer boats fishing this year, with fishermen combining quotas onto one boat that otherwise would have been fished by two vessels.

At least there is a red king crab season, despite earlier fears of a complete cancellation, according to Unalaska Mayor Frank Kelty.

“We wish it was more, but we’re happy there’s a king crab season,” said Jake Jacobsen, executive director of the Seattle-based Intercooperative Exchange, which negotiates prices for the crab fishing fleet.

The season will open Monday with red king crab, followed by snow crab toward the end of the year.

On a brighter note, the snow crab quota of 27.6 million pounds is up 45 percent from last year’s 19 million, according to Fish and Game.

And there will be a Tanner crab fishery in the western district, which wouldn’t have happened two years ago.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Key Alaska seafood products dropped from list of Chinese tariffs

October 9, 2018 — Some of Alaska’s seafood industry has escaped the Trump administration’s trade war with China for now. The industry is happy the administration dropped some mainstay seafood products from a list of tariffs it imposed last week.

The Trump administration levied billions of dollars worth of tariffs on the world’s second largest economy on Sept. 24. The tariffs start at 10 percent and will ratchet up to 25 percent by 2019. The Trump administration’s original list of levies included seafood products that Alaska processors export to China for reprocessing.

“A portion of that actually comes back to the U.S.,” Garrett Everidge, a fisheries economist at the McDowell Group, said. “These would be products such as salmon products, Pacific cod products and other seafood products that the state produces.”

But Pacific cod and salmon have been dropped from the list.

“As of right now, those categories have been excluded from the import tariffs. Pollock products have also been excluded,” Everidge explained.

That’s good news. Even when those tariffs were just a proposal, they were slowing down Alaska processors’ sales in China, the main buyer of Alaska seafood.

That’s because Chinese fish buyers were taking a wait-and-see approach as the Trump administration worked to finalize its list of tariffs. 

“Compared to a few months ago when there was a bit more uncertainty and just less information, we now have a better understanding of those products that are actually going to be on the list,” Everidge added. “That represents an improvement for both the buyers and sellers.”

Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute Executive Director Alexa Tonkovich agrees the final list is an improvement.

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media

Who Has The Edge In The Lobster Trade War?

September 27, 2018 — There are few New England scenes as iconic as the ol’ lobster shack. Local crustaceans being served up fresh and delicious in whole or in roll form. Well, it turns out that “just-off-the boat” experience has pretty broad appeal … like as far away as China.

“There’s always been a demand for it, but they wanted the live lobster,” said Arthur Sawyer, a Gloucester lobster fisherman and President of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association. “Live lobster — ya know — it’s like a 36 hour thing to get to China.”

A decade ago, the Chinese market for U.S. live lobster was essentially nonexistent. But a few years back, shippers finally worked out how to reliably get fresh live lobster to China. It was a game changer. Last year, the country imported nearly $150 million worth.

“There’s a whole lot of exporters that have gotten into the lobster business strictly because of China,” said Sawyer.

But live lobster got swept up in the trade war this July, when Beijing slapped a 25 percent tariff on U.S. imports. And just three months in, it’s already having an impact here. Vince Mortillaro, a local wholesaler, said China has stopped buying from him completely, and he’s has had to lay off three employees.

“They’re affecting me a lot,” he said of the tariffs. “We’re losing like 40,000 pounds of sales a week.”

For now, the pinch wholesalers are feeling has yet to trickle down to lobster fishermen on the boats, who sell to the wholesalers, or the lobster-craving public. As for why? Well, it’s complicated. Live lobster exports are an important part of the equation. But a sizable chunk of New England total haul each year gets sold off to be processed.

Read the full story at WGBH

China still buying spiny lobsters from US, driving up price to harvesters

September 26, 2018 — The price being paid to spiny lobster harvesters in the US’ Florida Keys is slowly increasing despite the 25% tariffs that took effect in China — their biggest market — in early July, The Key West Citizen reports.

Harvesters were getting $5 a pound in August but have been receiving as much as $9/lb in recent weeks, according to the newspaper.

The article quotes lobster fisherman Gary Nichols as saying the trade war with China is a big issue for spiny lobster harvesters, as 90% of their catch goes to Asia.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

China tariffs hit Alaska Amendment 80 fleet in midst of $285m recap effort

September 25, 2018 — US president Donald Trump’s 10% tariffs that went into effect Monday for nearly 6,000 Chinese goods are bad news for all of the US harvesters of seafood sent to China for processing, but they come at a particularly unfortunate time for the five companies with flatfish-catching vessels in Alaska’s Amendment 80 fleet.

Those harvesters have spent more than a combined $285 million over the past six years to replace or significantly improve their 19 ships, according to Chris Woodley, executive director of the Groundfish Forum, the trade group that represents them.

Woodley told Undercurrent News on Friday that he doesn’t know how the tariffs will immediately impact his members or if any of the additional cost might make them want to hit pause on their recent recapitalization effort.

“As far as specific business arrangements with individual companies, each A80 [Amendment 80] company has got its own supply chain and its own buyers,” he said. “It’s not a monolithic block. So, all we know right now is that the fish products harvested by the A80 fleet are on the list to have tariffs imposed, and that’s where we are.”

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

BOB JONES: USTR Announced Additional Duties on Chinese Seafood Imports

September 25, 2018 — The following was released by the Southeastern Fisheries Association:

Where will the seafood industry end up after the tariff war is concluded?

“Last night, at the direction of President Trump, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) announced that a 10 percent additional tariff would be imposed on a massive amount of Chinese imports, including imports of aquacultured seafood products effective on Monday, September 24th. The USTR additionally announced that these tariffs would increase to 25 percent on January 1, 2019.”

US fishermen can’t provide more fish to the domestic market because NOAA and the Councils have taken most of the seafood away from the non-boaters.

For instance, we can only harvest under our quotas 18,000,000 pounds of fish from Virginia through the Keys while the anglers have been gifted with 40,000,000 pounds.

In the Gulf of Mexico it seems when the red snapper needs 6,000,000 more pounds, nothing is based on science or process but rather by a stroke of the pen, the Secretary of Commerce can issue a ‘temporary rule re-opening the private angling component of the red snapper fishery in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) for the 2017 season on select weekend and holiday dates through Labor Day , September 4, 2017.’ (Page 1 of Motion for Summary Judgement between two environmental groups and Wilbur Ross as Secretary of Commerce-Case 1:17-cv01408-ABJ)Basically Commerce could not be punished because their temporary rule expired before the case got to the judge so everything was moot. The recreational fishing industry’s powerful vendors won again. Not Rule of Law.

It is good that qualified members of the domestic shrimp industry are compensated from tariffs received from foreign countries. It is bad that the domestic seafood industry as a whole was supposed to have a dynamic seafood program in place from the tariffs collected under the Saltonstall-Kennedy legislation but somehow, most of these tariffs are used for salaries and upkeep on NOAA facilities instead of going to where they should go.

Senators Kerry and Snowe tried to fix this in 2012 and it needs to be tried again. Tax money the anglers bring in from foreign tackle go to their issues. NOAA needs to do what the original act demands.

“The Saltonstall-Kennedy (S-K) Act directs 30% of the duties on imported fish products to a grant program for research and development projects to benefit the U.S. fishing industry. It is estimated that for 2010, the total duties collected on the imports of fishery products was $376.6 million. The S-K Act directs 30% of that total to be transferred to the Secretary of Commerce. In 2010, that equaled $113 million. Of that $113 million, $104.6 million went to NOAA’s operations budget, and only $8.4 million was used by NOAA for grants for fisheries research and development projects. We believe that we should follow the original intent of Senators Leverett Saltonstall and John F. Kennedy and restore this funding to help the fishermen and communities for whom it was originally intended.”
https://californiawetfish.org/fishingnews/tag/saltonstall-kennedy-act/

Ample S-K funds for honest stock assessments and for treating the “providers of seafood for non boaters i.e. commercial fishermen” as an important and vital sector of the society. We have been oppressed by NOAA policies for too long.