#2: US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick vows to support Maine lobster, suggests industry will be exempt from tariffs on Canada
The second most read story of 2025 was based on U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick’s promise to support Maine lobster in his role.
The U.S. Secretary of Commerce oversees NOAA and the National Marine Fisheries Service, and during a hearing in June, Lutnick was questioned by U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) on how he would interpret an executive order “Restoring Gold Standard Science.”
That order cited a biological opinion on North Atlantic right whales issued by NOAA in 2021, which led to years of turmoil in the Maine lobster industry as new rules proposed limits to the fishery that the Maine Lobstermen’s Association sued over, claiming they would devastate the fishery.
Lutnick said he planned to protect fishermen in the U.S. and also to fight to secure free trade for products like lobster between the U.S. and Canada due to their highly integrated supply chains.
“The overriding principle is USMCA. So, if the products are actually made in Canada and actually made in the United States, they come back and forth and it's easy for them to fall under the USMCA, and that has no tariff,” Lutnick said.
