China’s Ministry of Finance has announced tariff reductions on a range of seafood species, effective at 1 January, 2022.
The Office of the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council said that the temporary adjustment of import tariffs is intended to “create a strong atmosphere” for the Beijing Winter Olympics, which will run from 4 to 20 February. The ministry did not specify at what point the rate reduction will be removed – or if it runs merely for the duration of the Olympics.
Tariffs on fresh and cold Atlantic salmon will be reduced from 10 to 7 percent, while the rate on frozen Atlantic salmon will be cut from 7 to 5 percent.
There will be a sharp reduction in tariffs on frozen horse tongue flounder (also known as Greenland flat flounder) from 7 to 2 percent, with the same reduction on frozen plaice. Rates on frozen albacore, yellowfin, bigeye, and bluefin tuna will be reduced from 7 to 6 percent. The rate on both frozen cod and frozen herring will be cut from 7 to 3 percent, with the same rate cut applying to frozen Alaska pollock. The rate on various small frozen shrimp and prawns is being cut from 5 to 2 percent.
“The latest adjustments on tariffs have been positively received by the Norwegian seafood industry, and are seen as helpful to bringing even more sustainable and nutritious Norwegian seafood to the Chinese consumer,” Andreas Thorud, director of the Norwegian Seafood Council’s China office, told SeafoodSource.
The tariff reductions are good news for domestic consumption of seafood, said Landy Chow, the general manager of Bangkok, Thailand-based seafood trader Siam Canadian Group’s Guangzhou office.
“The lower duty means low import cost, which might push the sales to grow in the long-term. Meantime, such action indicates that China might lower the import duty for other products in the future,” he told SeafoodSource.
Chow said Siam Canadian imports just a small of the items affected by the change in rates.
“Therefore, there is no big benefit at this stage,” he said. “However, such action at least indicates more import duty reduction on other seafood will come, [so] in this sense, this is good news for Siam Canadian.”
Photo courtesy of xcarrot_007/Shutterstock
