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In 2017, American lobster exports to China were worth more than USD 90.2 million. (Photo: WCArchive)
Lobster exporters fear China's retaliation for tariff implementation
UNITED STATES
Tuesday, May 22, 2018, 03:20 (GMT + 9)
A group of American seafood exporters are urging federal authorities not to put a tariff on Chinese products for fear of retaliation against US exports.
Maine lobster dealers, who form part of this group, request the government to keep its industry out of the brewing US-China trade war, the Press Herald reported.
The industry leaders argue that such retaliation would hurt Alaskan fishermen and Maine lobstermen most.
“Not only because China is a crucial current and future market for US fish, but also because there is no ready substitute for the China market,” said John Connelly, president of the National Fisheries Institute, in testimony to the US trade representative.
Connelly was one of a half-dozen seafood industry leaders to oppose a recent proposal from six shrimp-producing states to levy a tariff on Chinese shrimp imports. They claimed it was unfair to drag seafood into a trade battle that began over intellectual property rights.
Most importantly, these fishing leaders worry about the impact of retaliatory seafood tariffs, especially for lobster.
Annie Tselikis, executive director of the Maine Lobster Dealers Association, recalled that in 2017, American lobster exports to China were worth more than USD 90.2 million and rising, explaining that that is 125 times bigger than it was just a decade earlier.
Meanwhile, official data has revealed that last year China imported 17.8 million pounds of US lobster, an amount that has gone up about 20 per cent every year since 2010.
Tselikis stressed that the growth of the Chinese market has supported the creation of thousands of new industry jobs in Maine.
Other US seafood exporters agreed, saying fishermen from Russia, Canada, Iceland, Thailand, Norway, Vietnam and Chile, among others, are just waiting to “elbow out” American competitors from the Chinese market if seafood tariffs are levied.
For his part, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Sunday that the Trump administration is putting its trade war with China “on hold” after two days of talks in Washington that produced agreement on increased Chinese purchases of American products and measures to make it easier for US companies to operate in China, The Washington Post reported.
Related article:
- Shrimp industry requests extra tariffs on Chinese farmed seafood imports
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