In official letters sent to the U.S. Trade Representative, the three largest canned tuna companies in the United States took contrasting views on how the tariffs imposed by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump will affect their industry.
Submitted on 5 September during the USTR’s public comment period of the proposed tariffs, Bumble Bee’s letter, which was signed by CEO Jan Tharp, specifically criticizes the inclusion of tuna loins in the products included in the latest round of tariffs approved by Trump, which went into effect 18 September.
“We are very concerned with the proposed tariff on tuna loins and the impact that these tariffs will have on our supply chain, global competitiveness, and U.S. operations, Tharp wrote. “The proposed tariff on tuna loins will have a devastating effect on Bumble Bee given that our business model is to import tuna loins for further processing and canning in the U.S. by American workers.”
Tharp said Bumble Bee’s U.S. plant in Santa Fe Springs, California is not capable of cleaning and processing whole fish and that “sourcing loins from a different location would be extremely costly.”
“A tariff on [tuna loins] will amount to a ‘Bumble Bee tax’ which will give its competitors – especially foreign competitors – an unfair competitive advantage as they will have access to lower-priced inputs,” Tharp wrote.
In his own letter to the USTR, Chicken of the Sea CEO Valentin Ramirez said the tariffs on tuna loins and other seafood products his company imports from China will result in “significant cost increases.”
“Due to the low margins earned by companies in this industry, these costs … would uniquely impact companies like COS with onshore U.S. jobs,” Ramirez wrote. “Because alternative supply arrangements are themselves costly and may be impracticable, COS may have to move production outside of the United States.”
The 25 percent tariffs on tuna loins, in combination with previously-enacted steel and aluminum tariffs, will cost Chicken of the Sea an estimated USD 5.8 million (EUR 4.9 million) annually, Ramirez said.
StarKist, the third member of the so-called “Big Three” U.S. canned tuna companies, wrote to the USTR with a drastically differing view of how the tariffs will affect its industry.
“The company agrees with and supports increased tariffs on certain goods of Chinese origin,” StarKist President and CEO Andrew Choe wrote in his company’s 6 September letter. “StarKist believes that the assessment of additional duties on Chinese-origin tuna … would be an effective means to pressure the Chinese government to change its actions … while minimizing the harm to American consumers.”
Choe wrote that there are numerous alternate sources of tuna supply other than China, and that the cost of duties placed on Chinese tuna will not be passed on to U.S. consumers.
“Moreover, there are significant American sources of supply for tuna and tuna products, and thus including these ‘tariff subheadings’ in the final list of Chinese origin products subject to additional duty assessment would not only put pressure on the Chinese economy, but also help U.S. businesses and workers in the tuna industry,” Choe wrote.
Choe notes in the letter that StarKist operates a tuna processing plant in Pago Pago, American Samoa, employing 2,400 workers.
