Saving Seafood

Deal announced to halt parallel tariffs between US and UK

June 18, 2021 — Just days after policymakers announced a five-year suspension of tariffs between the United States and European Union – winding down a decades-long trade conflict – officials announced a similar deal is being struck between the U.S. and United Kingdom.

The agreement is in regards to an ongoing civil aircraft dispute involving U.S.-based Boeing and E.U.-based Airbus. According to a release from the U.S. Trade Representative, the framework for a deal between the U.S. and U.K. is similar to that reached earlier this week with the E.U.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Some Relief For Seafood Industry Thanks to Airbus-Boeing Deal

June 16, 2021 — On Tuesday the United States and European Union announced a cooperative framework to address the large civil aircraft disputes which have been raging since 2004. As part of the agreement, the U.S. and EU have agreed to move away from “past confrontation in pursuit of a cooperative future by suspending the tariffs related to this dispute for five years.”

“After years of bitter litigation and weeks of intense diplomacy, we have reached a deal on a set of high-level principles that resets U.S.-EU engagement in the large civil aircraft industry,” U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said in a press release. “We are strongest when we work with our friends and allies, and the partnership with European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis is a demonstration of that principle in action.”

Read the full story at Seafood News

USTR announces, then suspends, 25 percent tariffs on goods including seafood from multiple countries

June 3, 2021 — U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced, and then immediately suspended, new Section 301 tariffs on goods from multiple countries as part of its one-year investigation of digital service taxes (DSTs).

The new tariffs, which will be set at 25 percent if reinstated, are in response to taxes levied by Austria, India, Italy, Spain, Turkey, and the United Kingdom on revenue generated by “non-resident” companies offering digital services – including the sales of software-as-a-service products. The USTR investigation began in June 2020 and found the practices of the countries discriminatory in January.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

USITC investigating effects of CETA on US lobster industry

September 2, 2020 — The United States International Trade Commission (USITC) has announced it is planning to investigate the impacts of a Canada-E.U. trade agreement on the U.S. lobster industry.

The investigation was kicked off by a letter from the United States Trade Representative requesting the USITC provide a complete overview of the U.S. and Canadian lobster industries, including the trends in exports between both countries and the U.K. and E.U. That letter was itself kicked off by an executive order from U.S. President Donald Trump, intended to boost the U.S. lobster industry.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Joint Statement of the United States and the European Union on a Tariff Agreement

August 21, 2020 — The following was released by the Office of the United States Trade Representative:

United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and European Union Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan today announced agreement on a package of tariff reductions that will increase market access for hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. and EU exports.  These tariff reductions are the first U.S.-EU negotiated reductions in duties in more than two decades.

Under the agreement, the EU will eliminate tariffs on imports of U.S. live and frozen lobster products.  U.S. exports of these products to the EU were over $111 million in 2017.  The EU will eliminate these tariffs on a Most Favored Nation (MFN) basis, retroactive to begin August 1, 2020.  The EU tariffs will be eliminated for a period of five years and the European Commission will promptly initiate procedures aimed at making the tariff changes permanent.  The United States will reduce by 50% its tariff rates on certain products exported by the EU worth an average annual trade value of $160 million, including certain prepared meals, certain crystal glassware, surface preparations, propellant powders, cigarette lighters and lighter parts.  The U.S. tariff reductions will also be made on an MFN basis and retroactive to begin August 1, 2020.

“As part of improving EU-US relations, this mutually beneficial agreement will bring positive results to the economies of both the United States and the European Union.  We intend for this package of tariff reductions to mark just the beginning of a process that will lead to additional agreements that create more free, fair, and reciprocal transatlantic trade,” said Ambassador Lighthizer and Commissioner Hogan.

Timeline on Negotiations:

In 2019, at the direction of President Donald J. Trump, the United States completed formal procedures necessary to launch negotiations on a trade agreement, as did the European Commission.

In September 2018, as required by the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015, Ambassador Lighthizer consulted with members of Congress on the Trump Administration’s interest in launching trade negotiations with the EU.  On October 16, 2018, the Office of the United States Trade Representative officially notified Congress that President Trump intended to launch trade negotiations with the EU.  On January 11, 2019, following consultations with Congress and public comment period from U.S. stakeholders, the Trump Administration issued formal U.S. negotiating objectives for the EU.

The agreement being announced today arose out of continuing engagement with the EU on these issues.

EU drops tariffs on US lobster

August 21, 2020 — The European Union will immediately eliminate its tariffs on imports of U.S. live and frozen lobster products, according to an announcement from the United States Trade Representative’s office.

An agreement struck between U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and European Union Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan on Friday, 21 August will result in the E.U. eliminating the lobster tariffs on a Most-Favored Nation basis, retroactive to 1 August, 2020. In return, the United States will reduce by 50 percent its tariffs on a variety of products including prepared meals, glassware, propellant powders, cigarette lighters, and other products collectively valued at around USD 160 million (EUR 135.7 million). The U.S. tariff reductions will also be made on a Most-Favored Nation basis and are retroactive to 1 August.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

USTR extends tariff exclusions for some seafood products, others will face tariffs again

August 10, 2020 — The United States Trade Representative has released a list of products shipped from China that will receive an extension of tariff exclusions, with several seafood items on the list.

The exclusion extensions apply to several seafood products shipped from China, and allows those products to continue avoiding a 25 percent tariff. The product exclusions will continue to retroactively apply as of 24 September, 2018, and were set to expire on 7 August before the extension which came on the last day before those products would be back under the tariff program.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Seafood task force submits recommendations to US Trade Representative

August 6, 2020 — A task force looking at bolstering the competitiveness of the U.S. seafood industry submitted its recommendations to do just that to the U.S. Trade Representatives on Wednesday, 5 August, NOAA announced in a release on Thursday, 6 August.

A list or summary was not released. Kate Goggin, a NOAA Fisheries spokesperson, told SeafoodSource the recommendations are “an internal, deliberative document.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Seafood could be casualty in escalating US trade spat with EU

July 31, 2020 — US companies importing seafood into the United States from the European Union (EU) or United Kingdom may have to contend with an up to 100-percent tariff increase as part of a decades-long US World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute over subsidies given to Netherlands-based Airbus.

On July 26 the US Trade Representative (USTR) accepted its final comments for a proposal that $3.1 billion (€2.6 billion) worth of products, including seafood, be slapped with tariffs of up to 100 percent. The United Kingdom is also included as part of that list.

The USTR is set to make a decision on the tariffs in August.

The seafood products, which have been considered for previous tariff action but have avoided US tariffs so far, are from Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Read the full story at IntraFish

Seafood, Alaska’s top export, is omitted from federal trade data

July 22, 2020 — Most Alaskans are surprised to learn that seafood is by far Alaska’s top export, the source of the state’s largest manufacturing base and its No. 1 private employer.

More surprising is that those facts are not included in the official trade sheet for Alaska provided by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

The information on the USTR website, for example, incorrectly claims that petroleum and coal were Alaska’s top exports in 2018. But seafood has been state’s top export by far for decades.

“Seafood comprises over half of Alaska’s annual export value, averaging $3.3 billion annually over the past decade, averaging $5.6 billion from 20170-2018,” reports the Alaska Resource Development Council on its fisheries page.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News