Forbes: Will Tariffs Cause the US Fish Industry to Flop
Another round of tariffs in the US-Chinese trade battle go into effect in September and will increase US seafood prices. About $900 million worth of US seafood is “first caught or raised in the U.S., sent to China for processing, and then subsequently imported back into the U.S. by companies that sell it to American consumers,” explains Maisie Ganzler for Forbes. “The fish was caught in Alaska, but it was cleaned, filleted, and frozen in China.” Such fish is labeled a product of China because they undergo “substantial transformation” in other countries. US consumers demand low-cost food, and so the industry relies on low-cost labor, including immigrants, and overseas processing for many food products. “It’s cheaper to catch a fish in the Gulf of Mexico, ship it 7,000 miles to China to have it filleted, then ship it back, than it is to fillet it in the U.S,” she explains. The system endangers small- and medium scale businesses. She suggests that high tariffs could eventually encourage more processing in developed countries and greater sustainability. More likely, fish will be sent to competitor nations like Vietnam or Thailand. Many US fishing vessels and processors could go out of business in the meantime. – YaleGlobal
Forbes: Will Tariffs Cause the US Fish Industry to Flop
US consumers demand cheap food, and so fish caught in American waters are often shipped to China for processing, then returned for sale in US stores
Thursday, August 23, 2018
Read the article about how tariffs will put the US fishing industry at risk.
Maisie Ganzler covers food sustainability, especially as it relates to seafood. She started working in restaurants at 14 and spent 20+ years with a $1.3 billion food-service company, where as chief strategy and brand officer, she has overseen the launch of the firm’s Farm to Fork local purchasing program in 1999, the switch to sustainable seafood in 2002, to cage-free shell eggs in 2005, to Certified Humane ground beef in 2012 and more.
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