Though most Canadian goods have been spared from the steepest of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs, Jason McLinton, who recently became president of the Fisheries Council of Canada (FCC), said the reprieve was no cause for celebration.
“There's uncertainty, and business does not do well with uncertainty,” he said.
The uncertainty over the direction of American trade policy is paralyzing the industry, McLinton said.
“People need to make business decisions about what they're harvesting and where they're going to invest in harvesting and processing. They also need to make business decisions about new investments, new processing facilities, and new vessels,” he said. “Uncertainty is bad for business, and it is bad for Canadian seafood exporters.”
As part of the trade war, China levied duties on Canadian aquatic products in March, which were announced by the Chinese government with 12 days of notice and no grace period. Some of the affected fisheries include Greenland halibut, clams – including Arctic surf clams – geoduck, coldwater shrimp, and sea cucumber, McLinton said.
“There were already containers on the water right on their way to China. There were already containers at Chinese ports. There were already contractual arrangements in place with prices agreed to before anyone knew about these tariffs,” McLinton said. “Without having a grace period, it has caused a lot of strain on the industry.”
He said it remains to be seen how much of the 25 percent Chinese tariff will be absorbed by Canadian exporters, how much will be absorbed by Chinese importers and consumers, or whether buyers in the Chinese market will look for alternative markets that aren't subject to tariffs.
“It’s early days to say exactly what the impacts will be on whom, but it's tough; it's going to remain tough on Canadian seafood exporters. Many of them have very thin margins,” he said. “They're facing an existential crisis about whether they will be able to continue operating.”
That assessment is shared by Christina Burridge, executive director of the British Columbia Seafood Alliance.
“I'd say the mood is glum,” she said. “Because we're in the seafood business, we are always optimistic, but the China tariffs are a real problem for us because our geoduck fisheries, our live crab fishery, our sea urchin, our sea cucumber, and to some extent our spot prawn fisheries are all dependent on the Chinese market to one degree or another.”
Burridge said the tariffs have already mostly shuttered British Columbia’s geoduck fishery.
“That's a 365-day-a-year fishery, and it's largely tied up,” she said.
After pivoting from Russia to China due to geopolitical tensions a decade ago and putting in legwork to develop the market there, McLinton said diversifying again is not a feasible strategy that addresses immediate industry needs.
“There’s no pivoting, and for some of these fisheries, devastation is the word,” Fisheries Council of Canada Board Chair Alberto Wareham told SeafoodSource.
While discussions are taking place on a government-to-government basis, McLinton said the FCC is working with elected officials and individuals seeking office in the upcoming 28 April federal election in Canada to make public commitments that maximum effort will be made toward normalizing trade.
“We're working with all federal political parties during the election, and we're calling on all parties to make firm commitments to returning to a stable, predictable trading environment with all of Canada's trading partners, including the United States and China,” he said. “The number one priority is to stabilize and normalize trade with the United States and to return to a zero-tariff environment with China.”
However, both candidates seeking election to the role of Canadian prime minister – Mark Carney and Pierre Poilievre – have signaled in campaign stops that Canada will be tough on China if it continues to face tariffs.
"There are partners in Asia that we can build deeper ties [with] … but the partners in Asia that share our values don't include China," Carney said, per Reuters. "There's certain activity that we could have with China. We obviously do have a large amount of trade with them, but we have to be very careful [and] deliberate, and they need to meet Canadian standards.”
Similarly, Poilievre said that China is not currently a friendly trading partner and will be treated as such if he is elected to the position.
"[China has] massively subsidized steel, aluminum, and EV industries. They're doing this with the goal of crushing our steel, our aluminum, and our automotive production and taking our jobs away," he said, per the CBC.
