July 1, 2025 — Rates for shipping containers traveling between the Far East and the U.S. West Coast have fallen, suggesting that the impact of the U.S.-China trade war is diminishing, at least for now.
The early June peak in rates between the Far East and the U.S. was a sign, logistics analysts said, of shippers’ eagerness to move goods into the U.S. during the 90-day tariff pause announced by the U.S. and China on 12 May.
April 14, 2025 — Elevated economic and political upheaval and the looming threat of tariffs have started hindering investments in the blue food economy, with backers of start-ups finding later-stage funders are edging away from the aquaculture innovation space.
Speaking at the Blue Food Innovation Summit, held in London from 8 to 9 April 2025, Aqua-Spark Chief Portfolio Officer Maria Velkova said there’s a tremendous amount of uncertainty in the aquaculture industry at present – particularly among investors. Such a backdrop tends to make things more difficult, with people becoming increasingly risk-averse and more prone to freezing up.
April 7, 2025 — A bulletin issued by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) providing additional guidance on U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs has revealed importers have until 27 May to bring goods onshore to avoid additional fees – and that U.S.-origin seafood will be given a break on tariffed value when re-imported.
Trump issued sweeping tariffs hitting virtually every country on 2 April – a move that will affect billions of dollars of seafood imports. The U.S. imports far more seafood than it produces; according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the country imported USD 25.3 billion (EUR 23.1 billion) worth of seafood products in 2023, resulting in a trade deficit of USD 20.3 billion (EUR 18.6 billion).
April 7, 2025 — Another day, another Washington state industry caught in the trade crossfire between the U.S. and much of the rest of the world.
On Friday, farmers, seafood companies and other food makers in Washington were weighing potential damage after China announced 34% tariffs on U.S. exports, starting next Thursday, in retaliation for a new 34% U.S. tariff on Chinese goods announced Wednesday by President Donald Trump.
Though not unexpected, China’s tariff tit-for-tat means yet more pain for trade-reliant Washington, which last year sold nearly $700 million in everything from beef and seafood to wheat and hay to China, the state’s No. 4 export market for agricultural goods and seafood.
“It’s just unprecedented, what’s happening,” said Mark Anderson of Ellensburg-based Anderson Hay, which sells 70% of its crop overseas, including in China, of the latest tariffs. “And the more you dive into the details, the scarier the consequences are, because they’re all unknown.”
April 4, 2025 — China’s Ministry of Finance has announced 34 percent tariffs on all U.S. goods in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest tariff order.
Trump announced sweeping tariffs 2 April targeting nearly every country in the world with a baseline 10 percent tariff. As part of the trade action, China was hit with an additional 34 percent tariff, adding to two existing tariff actions to reach a 54 percent tariff on Chinese goods.
July 20, 2022 — The American fishing industry is caught in the middle of the ongoing trade war between the U.S. and China—hooked by tariffs imposed on both sides of the Pacific.
As a result, U.S. exports of seafood have fallen to their lowest levels in a decade. That’s in large part due to the tariffs that have made the industry “less competitive and less affordable,” according to a filing by the National Fisheries Institute, an industry group, to the International Trade Commission (USITC) ahead of a hearing scheduled to take place on Thursday.
When the Trump administration imposed those tariffs in 2018, lawmakers from states with large fishing industries sounded the alarm but were ignored. “It has clearly rattled my state,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R–Alaska) said in a 2018 Senate hearing exchange with then-U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. “Our seafood industry is the number one private industry in terms of the jobs and the economic opportunity it brings.”
Tariffs on seafood have hit Alaska in particular, Alaska’s fishing industry generates over $5 billion dollars in economic activity and creates nearly 70,000 jobs in the state, making it a vital lifeline for the state. Over 40 percent of U.S.-caught Alaskan salmon and one-third of all seafood from Alaska is exported to China each year. Much of it is processed in China and then re-imported to the United States for sale in grocery stores.
Read the full article at Reason
December 17, 2020 — With the U.S. Electoral College certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s victory over President Donald Trump, the country has continued the transition of power, which will culminate in the 20 January inauguration.
As the Biden administration continues to announce its cabinet picks, analysts are expecting that the country’s current stance on international trade likely won’t shift nearly as much.
December 8, 2020 — Negotiations between Britain and the European Union over a post-Brexit trade deal are complex and France will oppose any pact that “sacrifices” its fishermen, French European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune said on Tuesday.
“On fisheries there is no reason to yield to Britain’s pressure. We can make some efforts but sacrificing fisheries and fishermen, no,” Beaune told RMC radio, reiterating that France would veto any agreement it considered a “bad” deal.
Since Britain left the European Union in January, each side has urged the other to make concessions to unlock a trade deal before Britain’s transition period for leaving the bloc ends on Dec. 31.
December 8, 2020 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced a one-month extension to the signup period for the Seafood Trade Relief Program.
The program is designed to support the U.S. seafood industry by offsetting some of the impacts of retaliatory tariffs implemented by foreign governments. Thanks to the extension, impacted fishermen can now sign up for the program through 15 January, 2021.
November 27, 2020 — Battered by trade wars and COVID-19, the U.S. Northwest maritime industry is applying lessons learned from both crises, according to leaders who spoke at Pacific Marine Expo’s virtual Maritime Economic Forecast.
With China as its number-one trading partner, the Northwest Seaport Alliance of Seattle and Tacoma saw immense change as a result of U.S.-China trade disputes, followed by a steep falloff in vessel traffic as COVID-19 reverberated in the world economy.