The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) on Monday, 13 May, released a preliminary list of Chinese goods subject to a proposal for a new round of tariffs announced by U.S. President Donald Trump last week. The list includes pollock, cod, and salmon products.
The U.S. has proposed imposing 25 percent tariffs on 3,805 full and partial tariff subheadings on the list with an estimated value between USD 300 billion (EUR 267 billion) and USD 325 billion (EUR 289 billion).
The list contains a range of seafood items, including several that had escaped being named in previous rounds of tariffs. They include:
- 0304.71.10 Frozen cod fillets, skinned, in blocks weighing over 4.5 kg, to be minced, ground or cut into pieces of uniform weight and dimension
- 0304.71.50 Fillets, frozen, of cod, other than above
- 0304.72.10 Frozen haddock fillets, skinned, in blocks weighing over 4.5 kg, to be minced, ground or cut into pieces of uniform weight and dimension
- 0304.75.10 Frozen Alaska pollack fillets, skinned, in blocks weighing over 4.5 kg, to be minced, ground or cut
- 0304.75.50 Fillets, frozen, of Alaska pollock, other than above
- 0304.81.10 Frozen salmon fillets, skinned, in blocks weighing over 4.5 kg, to be minced, ground or cut into pieces of uniform weight
- 0304.81.50 Other frozen salmon fillets
- 0304.94.10 Alaska pollack chilled or frozen fillets,in bulk or in immediate containers weighing with their contents over 6.8 kg each
- 0304.95.90 Bregamacerotidae other fish, other than Alaska pollack, nesoi, chilled or frozen fillets,nesoi
- 0303.69.00 Other fish in Bregmacerotidae et al,etc. frozen, excluding fillets, other meat portions, livers and roes
As part of the process for imposing the new tariffs, the USTR has opened its proposal up for public comments, and will hold a public hearing on 17 June, followed by another week for comments. The outlined timeframe means the tariffs cannot be imposed until 24 June at the earliest.
Reported to be close to a deal last week, talks stalled after China backed away from commitments to enact policies to increase intellectual property protection and end forced technology transfers, according to Reuters.
“I say openly to [Chinese] President Xi [Jinping] & all of my many friends in China that China will be hurt very badly if you don’t make a deal because companies will be forced to leave China for other countries,” Trump wrote on Twitter on Monday, 13 May. “You had a great deal, almost completed, & you backed out!”
On Monday, China announced retaliatory tariffs on USD 60 billion (EUR 53.4 billion) of American goods from 10 percent to 20 or 25 percent. The list of items subject to those tariffs does not include seafood products.
In a news briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the U.S. had also backed out of previous commitments in previous rounds of talks.
"You absolutely can't put the hat on China of reversing positions and going back on one's promises," Geng said.
Geng said negotiations are ongoing.
“We hope the U.S. can work with China to meet each other halfway, address each other's legitimate concerns, and strive for a mutually beneficial agreement on the basis of mutual respect and equality. It will serve the interests of both China and the U.S. and is the shared expectation of the international community,” he said. "My understanding is that China and the United States have agreed to continue pursuing relevant discussions. As for how they are pursued, I think that hinges upon further consultations between the two sides. We hope that the U.S. side does not misjudge the situation and not underestimate China's determination and will to safeguard its interests."
In comments made on Tuesday, 14 May at the White House, Trump said discussions with China will continue at the G-20 Summit in Japan in late June.
“That'll be, I think, probably a very fruitful meeting,” Trump said, according to Reuters.
On Twitter, he said a deal with China had to be in the best interests of the United States.
“When the time is right we will make a deal with China. My respect and friendship with President Xi is unlimited but, as I have told him many times before, this must be a great deal for the United States or it just doesn’t make any sense,” Trump tweeted on Tuesday.
In response to the mounting costs of the trade war between the U.S. and China, Gavin Gibbons, the vice president of communications for the National Fisheries Institute, the trade group representing the U.S. seafood industry, lamented the upping of tariffs by both sides.
“China is the single-largest market for outbound U.S. seafood, accounting for about a quarter of total U.S. exports. Meanwhile, nationally, the [U.S.] Department of Commerce estimates there are 525,291 jobs in this country that rely on the raw material from imported seafood,” Gibbons told SeafoodSource. “A war of escalating tariffs hurts U.S. exports and U.S. jobs, this latest chapter is part of a well-established lose, lose story that this trade war has been for seafood.”
In Alaska, some companies and the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI), which helps to market seafood from Alaska, are making moves to prepare for the new round of tariffs. ASMI is putting in a renewed effort to explore alternative markets, with saying efforts are being made to look at "both traditional and nontraditional markets,” according to ASMI Executive Director Jeremy Woodrow.
According to the Kodiak Daily Mirror, Alaska had USD 989 million (EUR 882 million) worth of seafood sales to China in 2017, accounting for more than 50 percent of the state’s seafood sales by value, according to ASMI. But sales to China were down more than 20 percent in 2018 and the industry is expecting an even bigger drop in 2019, ASMI reported.
An ASMI survey found 65 percent of Alaskan seafood businesses lost sales after tariffs were implemented, 50 percent reported sales delays, 36 percent reported lost customers in China, and 21 percent had unanticipated costs because of the trade dispute.
"Because of the conflict, it makes our product less competitive in that marketplace," Woodrow said.
