Representatives of Atlantic Canada’s seafood industry are urging fishermen and exporters to diversify their markets with the return of U.S. President Donald Trump to the White House.
As Trump was sworn in Monday, his team signaled he was standing by his threat to impose across-the-board 25 percent tariffs on Canadian exports on his first day in office.
But Geoff Irvine, director of the Lobster Council of Canada, said in an interview that the new U.S. administration nevertheless sends the message that the Canadian seafood industry should focus on other international markets.
“The key is to grow our business elsewhere,” Irvine said Monday. “This is my message to anyone who will listen to me. We need to build the resilience of our business by selling more in a wider variety of locations.
He says Quebec and Atlantic Canada together exported about $1.6 billion worth of lobster to the United States in 2023, adding that if tariffs were imposed, it would cost valuable jobs and revenue in coastal communities .
Representatives of the Canadian seafood industry will travel on a trade mission to Europe in two weeks, but Irvine said the sector could do more by also expanding markets in Asia and the Middle East.
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Stewart Lamont, chief executive of Tangier Lobster Company, based in Tangier, Nova Scotia, expressed hope Monday that Trump’s tariff program is now “very much on hold” as consumers become increasingly aware that Tariffs could lead to higher prices for Americans on food and beverage products. fuel.
Lamont — whose company exports live lobster to Canada and to customers in Europe, Asia and the Middle East — said he chose years ago to focus on customers outside the United States. United. “Diversify as much as possible to reduce your short-term risk,” he said in an interview.
However, Lamont notes that the seafood sector on Canada’s East Coast is closely linked to the U.S. industry, with some catches crossing the border multiple times and processors and exporters sometimes having operations in both countries.
Osborne Burke, Director of Victoria Co-operative Fisheries Ltd. in Neils Harbour, Nova Scotia, said he believed a tariff on seafood would be deeply unpopular with American consumers, who would see their prices rise significantly. “Do we have any concerns, yes. But they should be more worried,” he said in an interview on Monday.
Like Lamont, Burke is looking to diversify his clientele. Last year, his cooperative — which works with about 100 fishermen in Cape Breton — could have sold more crab and lobster to Southeast Asia, but chose to continue selling to American customers. “With the threat of these tariffs… we are already looking to sell more to our Asian customers,” he said.
For David DiCenso, director of Boston Wholesale Lobster, the possibility of imposing tariffs on shellfish he imports from Canada poses a risk to his business, and he hopes Trump will drop his threat.
“We only make a 10 percent margin, and it is not possible to add a 25 percent tariff to that, and there is no way to pass that on to the fishermen,” DiCenso said in an interview Monday from Boston.
Robert Huisch, a professor in the department of international development studies at Dalhousie University, advised Atlantic Canadian businesses to remain vigilant over the next four years regarding the risk of U.S. tariffs.
U.S. consumers’ anger over rising seafood prices at supermarkets and restaurants is unlikely to be a determining factor when deciding on U.S. tariffs.
Huisch said Canadian governments should come together to impose additional fees on exported energy as a potential retaliation against across-the-board tariffs.
“Americans are not dependent on snow crab or other seafood in the same way they are on energy, and I think that will be the trump card in any negotiation between Canada and the United States. United,” he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published January 20, 2025.
— With files from The Associated Press.
© 2025 The Canadian Press