March 15, 2022 — The United Kingdom has announced a ban on exports of high-end luxury goods to Russia, while also hitting hundreds of key Russian products with new import tariffs that represent a 35 percentage point hike on current rates.
Russian whitefish is one of the products affected by the tariff increases, as is vodka, while the export ban will likely affect luxury vehicles, high-end fashion, and works of art.
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March 14, 2022 — President Joe Biden on Friday ordered a national ban on some imports from Russia, including seafood. It’s a move intended to punish that country for its invasion of Ukraine, but the ban has ripple effects that could wash ashore in Alaska.
Russian seafood competes with Alaska products for shelf space and consumer attention, particularly pollock and crab. Officials here said Friday’s announcement could benefit the Alaska fishing industry.
But the effects may be limited to a few key sectors — the major Seattle-based trawlers that haul up millions of pounds of pollock, largely for export, and hard-hit Bering Sea crab fishermen. There will be some effect on salmon fishermen, experts say, but the embargo’s impact is less clear in that industry.
“It’s a big deal for crab,” said Jamie Goen, executive director of Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers. The group represents about 350 members, including 60 boats in Alaska’s crab fleet.
March 14, 2022 — U.S. President Joe Biden’s order from Friday, 11 March, 2022, banning Russian seafood imports from entering U.S. ports will give U.S. businesses some time to accept previously made orders, according to guidance issued by the Treasury Department.
For those companies that have previously done business with Russia, any contract that was in place before Biden signed the executive order can still be carried out. But the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced that companies expecting imports of fish or other items now banned can receive them through Friday, 25 March, as long as there was a written agreement in place prior to the president’s order.
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March 14, 2022 — The Seafood for Heroes program, organized and managed through the Napa Seafood Foundation, is using donations from seafood companies to provide healthy meals to first responders in Ukraine through the World Central Kitchen.
The Seafood for Heroes program was formed in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, as a way for seafood companies participating in the Napa Seafood Foundation to give back to first-responders and healthcare workers on the front lines.
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March 11, 2022 — The Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine has sent out a request to the globe’s seafood companies, asking for help replenishing Ukraine’s food stocks in the face of Russia’s ongoing invasion.
In a letter released on Tuesday, 8 March, the Ukraine Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Roman Leshchenko requested seafood products to be sent to Ukraine, which is in “dire need of replenishment.”
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March 11, 2022 — U.S. President Joe Biden announced a ban on Russian seafood imports on Friday, 11 March, amid a raft of new economic sanctions he’s imposing in response Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and other members of that state’s congressional delegation, who called for blocking Russian seafood imports as the country prepared to invade Ukraine, backed Biden’s move. A bill introduced into the Senate by Sullivan and fellow Alaskan GOP U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski was blocked just prior to when the invasion began in February.
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March 8, 2022 — The Boston-based Massachusetts Seafood Collaborative, which has several Gloucester members, is calling for sanctions to take a bite out of Russian fish imports because of the war in Ukraine.
The collaborative, which counts the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association as a member, said that in 2021, the U.S. imported $4 billion worth of Russian fish for processing, leading directly to jobs and paychecks for Massachusetts residents.
“Though Russia blocks imports of American fish,” the collaborative said, “our commitment to free trade and open markets allowed this one-sided relationship to bear fruit. The invasion of Ukraine by Russia has forced our industry — and our nation — to decide between our ideals and our wallets.”
The collaborative called on elected officials to immediately sanction Russian fish exports into the U.S.
It was unclear what this would mean for Gloucester.
March 8, 2022 — Several major U.S. seafood restaurant chains have ceased buying seafood from Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, an act of aggression that has had significant ripple-effects across the global seafood industry.
Orlando, Florida, U.S.A.-based Red Lobster has promised not to buy any products from Russia or of Russian origin, a spokesperson told SeafoodSource.
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March 3, 2022 — Tensions continue to simmer between Moscow and Washington in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In many respects, the divide between East and West is deepening: Oil companies are canceling partnerships with Russian firms. State legislators are calling for the state’s sovereign wealth fund to dump Russian investments. President Joe Biden announced Tuesday the U.S. would close its airspace to Russian aircraft.
But the United States and Russia are continuing to work together on at least one issue: salmon.
There’s a map scattered with orange, green, blue and red dots spanning most of the North Pacific above 46 degrees latitude.
March 1, 2022 — Quid pro quo. Tit for tat. An eye for an eye.
“If they don’t buy from us, we shouldn’t buy from them,” Alaska’s seafood industry has grumbled since 2014, when Russia abruptly banned all food imports from the U.S. and several other countries. Then, as now, the faceoff stemmed from Russia’s invasion and subsequent takeover of chunks of Ukraine, which prompted backlash and severe sanctions.
Yet U.S. purchases of Russian seafood through 2021 have totaled over $4.6 billion and counting, according to federal trade data.
Alaska’s congressional delegation has finally taken first steps to end the trade imbalance. On Feb. 9, Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan introduced the United States-Russian Federation Seafood Reciprocity Act of 2022 that would prohibit imports of any Russian seafood products into the U.S. until that country ends its ban on buying U.S. seafoods.