Caught In Alaska, Processed In China: Does Trump Make A Good Point?
When Donald J. Trump announced his candidacy in 2015 he created quite a stir with many of his statements. He spoke a great deal about securing borders, fixing the economy and especially the effects of China on the United States. Regardless of whether you agree with his plans and ideas of how to tackle these issues, you have to agree that these issues really do exist, especially the influence of China. The financial power of China overpowers not only American consumer good production, but also greatly affects the competitive of US fisheries. One of the major secrets to China’s fiscal strength is its over-abundance of very cheap labor. There is such a difference in labor between the US and China that it has greatly changed the way the US seafood industry works. Previously it was ideal to catch the fish in Alaska, fully process it in Alaska (i.e. filleting), and then ship it down to the mainland US where it would be consumed. Today it is just as common to catch the fish in Alaska, freeze it, ship it to China, process the seafood there, and then ship it to the mainland US for sale. This difference makes seafood producers millions of extra profits every year. This is common for all sorts of Alaskan seafood, including Alaskan Pollock, Pacific Cod, and especially Salmon. Read the article here 18:13
A predictive article, Nikolai – and an important reminder about water retention, weight retaining, consumer cheating unhealthy chemicals.
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Increasing amounts of Alaska EEZ zone fish is going to head off to China, as Dutch Harbor prepares to lay off hundreds of food processing workers and ship Pollock etc. overseas. When Inshore/Offshore Pollock “Ratz” occurred the Dutch Harbor plants owned by Maruha and Nippon Suisan both shrank from something like 1,200 workers down to 700-750 a piece. Round two ahead, 2017 will be the year of even more job losses. The worst part?
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Ocean purified protein in the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands and Gulf of Alaska will be shifted, along with $100’s of millions in otherwise USA taxable revenues, cross-borders inside Transnational Corporation subsidiary structures, hollowing out more than jobs on the USA side.
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Wait! The worst part is that with 300 million or more Asian middle class than in the 1990’s when Ratz catch shares were set giving shoreside Foreign Controlled Corporations the majority of monopsony rights, will now eat our good protein, not “Americans and Europeans.” Who will have to increasingly rely on pond and farmed raised products of questionable purity.
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It is time that PEOTUS Trump address the request in 1977 by New England Fish Company to then POTUS Jimmy Carter, to declare the fishery resources off Alaska “a strategic national resource.” Remove exclusive buying rights from a few MNEs’ FCCs and open up trade in compliance with WTO rules. And overturn all catch shares, as Iceland did after a ruling under the UN Human Rights Convention. Protect our Treasury and USA consumers first! That is also the trade route to higher ex-vessel prices and more jobs in our, host, nation.
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If’n we was talkin alligators…. we’d be talking about draining the swamp of corruption, right!?
~ Stephen Taufen, founder.