China’s purchases of U.S. seafood grew in 2021, but remain well off the pre-pandemic total achieved in 2018, even though overall Chinese seafood imports are up significantly over 2018 levels.
The research, carried out by McKinley Research – part of the McKinley Management Co., with offices in the U.S. states of Alaska and Illinois – shows China imported USD 11.5 billion (EUR 10.2 billion) worth of seafood in 2021, though final full-year data has yet to be confirmed by China. China imported seafood worth USD 7.2 billion (EUR 6.4 billion) in 2017 and USD 10.3 billion (EUR 9.1 billion) in 2018.
American seafood exports to China dropped from USD 1.23 billion (EUR 1.09 billion) in 2017 to USD 1.05 billion (EUR 934 million) in value in 2018 before slumping to USD 687 million (EUR 611 million) in 2020 and then recovering somewhat in 2021 to total USD 761 million (EUR 677 million). Shipments of Alaska pollock fell in 2021 to USD 41.4 million (USD 36.8 million), a third of the USD 121.2 million (EUR 107 million) recorded in 2017.
The data buttresses claims that China is not living up to promises it made to increase its U.S. seafood purchases as part of the “Phase One” deal it signed in January 2020 with the United States.
China was the second-largest buyer of lobster from the United States – purchasing USD 128 million (EUR 115 million) in 2017 – before it placed a retaliatory 25 percent tariff on U.S. lobster in 2018. American exporters sent more 6,000 tons of lobster to China during the first 11 months of 2021 – about six percent more than the same time period the previous year. And even though Chinese purchases of American agricultural products rose 35 percent year-on-year in 2021, it’s unclear whether China’s imports are meeting its commitments under the Phase One deal.
U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) recently wrote a letter urging U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to support her state’s lobster industry by pushing China to uphold its promise to purchase more U.S. lobster.
“I urge you to take swift and appropriate action to ensure China upholds the purchase commitments it made under the Phase One Trade Agreement, and in particular its U.S. lobster purchase commitments,” Collins wrote in the 15 February missive.
Collins asked Tai to investigate current levels of Chinese purchases of U.S. lobster and to identify “areas for improvement” in China’s performance under the agreement. She also asked Tai to spell out how her office will hold China accountable to its U.S. lobster purchase commitments.
Photo courtesy of WikiMedia Commons
