China's intention to apply 25 percent tariffs to Canadian shellfish products adds another layer of uncertainty to an industry already threatened by the duties of the United States, they say the representatives of the sector in the Atlantic of Canada.
China announced retaliation rates on Saturday in response to the surface of the Canadian surface of 100 percent in all Chinese electric vehicles, and 25 percent in steel and aluminum.
And while 25 percent of American tariffs on Canadian shellfish and other goods are pause until April 2, Chinese duties must enter into force on March 20 into a long list of products such as lobster, snow and shrimp crab.
In an interview on Monday, Kris Vascotto, executive director of the New Scotland Marshal Alliance, described China's movement as a “very strategic success” in the fish and seafood sector of Atlantic Canada.
“This will be presented as a challenge, there is no doubt,” said Vascotto. “Essentially, the landscape has changed fundamentally. The announcement is another clear demonstration that we have seen in recent months that commercial actions have reactions. “
Vascotto, whose organization represents 135 processors and loaders based on the coast, said that the volatility of the resulting price is expected to affect the supply chain “to the harvesting”.
He said that Chinese duties will reach the lobster and snow crab, as well as niche products such as sea cucumber, wherelk and prawns.
“Somehow, these tariff costs will have to be absorbed so that we can continue moving the product,” said Basque. “We can definitely expect a fairly volatile season.”
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According to the Federal Government, China is the second largest fish and seafood export market in Canada after the United States, with $ 1.3 billion in products sent to the Asian nation in 2024.
Federal figures show that the best exports of seafood from Canada to China in 2023 were lobster at $ 569 million, crab at $ 300 million and shrimp at $ 262 million, which represents 78 percent of all seafood exports to that country.
Nat Richard, Executive Director of the Association of Lobster Processors, a group based in Moncton, NB that represents 25 frozen lobster and crab product processors in New Brunswick, Nueva Scotia and Pei, said that while everyone is “a little tremors”, the impacts will probably feel more by companies that send living liberation to international markets. Richard said that exports to the United States of frozen lobster remained at 80 percent last year, while those of China represented three percent.
Even so, he said that the effects will vary between individual processing plants.
“At a general level in the aggregate, it is a small portion of the frozen lobster product market, but for some individual plants they do a good business in China. The export profile varies from one plant to another. “
Richard said bets are higher for processors with respect to US tariffs due to a highly integrated supply chain.
On March 4, the Donald Trump administration imposed 25 percent tariffs on almost all Canadian and Mexican imports, with a lower tax in 10 percent in Canadian energy. But last week, after the chaos of the market, Trump signed an executive order that delayed until next month those tariffs for goods, such as seafood, which meet the requirements of rules of origin under the free trade agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Richard said that much of the lobster captured by fishermen in Maine, which represents approximately 85 percent of the United States harvest, is prosecuted by Canadian plants.
“Whether we have a rate or not, we will continue to supply the market … but obviously there is a concern that it will affect the market, it could weigh the demand.”
Meanwhile, Stewart Lamont, managing director of Tangier Lobster Company Ltd., in Tangier, NS, said that the rate of 25 percent of China joins an earlier tariff of seven percent and nine percent of value added taxes imposed by that country.
“It is substantial to say the least and arrives at a time when we are already being attacked under US tariffs,” said Lamont, whose company sends lobster lives 13 countries around the world.
The company is located just over an hour of air cargo services at the Halifax Stanfield and Lamont International Airport said it has succeeded for a period of approximately 40 years in the diversification of its export markets. He currently does not send any products to the United States and around 15 percent to China.
“We have always tried to be diversified and all our eggs are not in the Chinese basket, that's safe,” he said.
However, there are companies that send most of their living lobster to China and Lamont said it will make things difficult because the new markets are not obtained overnight.
“All these things take time, money, marketing and creativity, so the pivot is more challenging than people might think,” he said.
According to the Chinese Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council, additional tariffs of 100 percent of the additional rates to Colza Petroleum, oil cakes and peas, and additional tariffs of 25 percent will be applied to pork and aquatic products will be imposed.
& Copy 2025 the Canadian press