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