Tag Archives: U.S.-China trade war
Canada’s largest lobster fishery set to begin amid threat of Trump tariffs
Trump’s inauguration is still a couple of months away, he officially takes office on Jan. 20, but fishermen are trying to take the threat in stride while preparing for the season to open Nov. 25. “People are concerned, but until it happens, we’ll just carry on,” Geoff Irvine, executive director of the Lobster Council of Canada, said. “There’s not a lot we can do to prepare and speculating on what it could mean doesn’t really get us anywhere.” As a result, the stakes are high if U.S. president-elect Donald Trump makes good on his campaign promise to impose duties of between 10 per cent and 20 per cent on all imported goods. While fishermen are worried about how this will play out, he said they have more immediate concerns on their minds. “What’s the catch going to be like?” he said. “What’s the price of lobster going to be like? What’s the weather going to be like? “more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 15:26
Seafood Trade Relief Program: USDA tweaks farm assistance program to fund fishermen hurt by U.S. China trade war
Jeremy Leighton is a dive fisherman based in Ketchikan. But it’s not just geoduck fishermen. Frances Leach heads up United Fishermen of Alaska, a fishing industry group. “China seems to be one of the biggest markets for a lot of our seafood products in Alaska. And not just buying them for consumption, but also processing. We send a lot of seafood over to China to be processed,” Leach said. Now, Leighton and thousands of other U.S. fishermen could be eligible for a new program designed to help fishermen hurt by the tariff on seafood. It’s an Agriculture Department initiative called the Seafood Trade Relief Program. U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan said it’s a new twist on an old trade war strategy. “There have been long standing U.S. Department of Agriculture programs that provide relief to farmers, when their products exported are hit with retaliatory tariffs,” Sullivan said. >click to read< 10:21
U.S.-China trade war is a boon for Atlantic Canada’s lobster harvesters. But what’s the catch?
Exports of Canadian lobster rose to a record $266-million from $112-million in the 18 months between January, 2018, and June, 2019. Meanwhile, U.S. exports have plummeted, especially in Maine, where live lobster exports to China collapsed by 81 per cent between June, 2018, and the same month this year. It’s all pumping millions of dollars into Atlantic Canada, fuelling a boat-building boom, sending pickup-truck sales soaring and giving lobster crews six-figure salaries, a significant raise from the recent past. >click to read< 10:17
Canadian lobster exporters feel ripple effect of U.S.-China trade war
The United States-China trade war is creating choppy seas for Canada’s lobster exporters. It has led to the dumping of Maine lobster — now priced out of China — in other Asian markets and Europe, said Jack Liu, president of North American operations for Zoneco, a large Chinese seafood company with a Nova Scotia operation. Dumping is when a country or company exports a product in a foreign market at a price that is lower than the price in the exporter’s domestic market. “All of a sudden they lost the Chinese market due to the 25 per cent tariff and what are they going to do? They are going to dump those amount of lobster into other parts of the world market. We have seen that,” said Liu. >click to read<19:08
