China tariffs on Canadian seafood add more volatility to industry threatened by Trump

China's 25 per cent tariffs on lobsters are causing concerns for Maritimers.

HALIFAX — China’s intent to slap 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian seafood products adds another layer of uncertainty to an industry already threatened by U.S. duties, say sector representatives in Atlantic Canada.

China announced the retaliatory tariffs on Saturday in response to the Canadian surtax of 100 per cent on all Chinese-made electric vehicles, and of 25 per cent on steel and aluminum.

And while 25 per cent U.S. tariffs on Canadian seafood and other goods are on pause until April 2, the Chinese duties are to take effect March 20 on a long list of products like lobster, snow crab and shrimp.

In an interview Monday, Kris Vascotto, executive director of the Nova Scotia Seafood Alliance, called China’s move a “very strategic hit” on Atlantic Canada’s fish and seafood sector.

“This is going to present itself as a challenge, there’s no doubt,” said Vascotto. “Essentially the landscape has fundamentally changed. The announcement is yet another clear demonstration that we’ve seen over the last few months that trade actions have reactions.”

Vascotto, whose organization represents 135 shore-based processors and shippers, said it’s expected that the resulting price volatility will affect the supply chain “right down to the harvester.”

He said the Chinese duties will hit lobster and snow crab as well as niche products such as sea cucumber, whelk and prawns.

“Somehow these tariff costs will have to be absorbed in order for us to keep moving product,” Vascotto said. “We can definitely expect a fairly volatile season coming up.”

According to the federal government, China is Canada’s second largest fish and seafood export market after the U.S., with $1.3 billion in products shipped to the Asian nation in 2024.

Federal figures show Canada’s top seafood exports to China in 2023 were lobster at $569 million, crab at $300 million and shrimp at $262 million, accounting for 78 per cent of all seafood exports to that country.

Nat Richard, executive director of the Lobster Processors Association, a Moncton, N.B.-based group that represents 25 processors of frozen lobster and crab products in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and P.E.I., said that while everyone is “a little bit shaken,” the impacts will likely be felt more by companies that ship live lobsters to international markets. Richard said exports to the U.S. of frozen lobster stood at 80 per cent last year while those to China accounted for three per cent.

Still, he said the effects will vary across individual processing plants.

“At a general level in the aggregate it’s a small slice of the frozen lobster product market, but for some individual plants they do a fair bit of business in China. The export profile varies from plant to plant.”

Richard said the stakes are higher for processors regarding U.S. tariffs because of a highly integrated supply chain.

On March 4, the Donald Trump administration imposed tariffs of 25 per cent on almost all Canadian and Mexican imports, with a lower 10 per cent levy on Canadian energy. But last week, after days of market chaos, Trump signed an executive order delaying until next month those tariffs for goods -- such as seafood -- that meet the rules-of-origin requirements under the free-trade agreement between the U.S. Canada and Mexico.

Richard said much of the lobster caught by fishermen in Maine, which accounts for about 85 per cent of the U.S. harvest, is processed by Canadian plants.

“Whether we have a tariff or not we will continue to supply the market but obviously there is a concern that it will affect the marketplace, it could weigh on demand.”

Meanwhile, Stewart Lamont, managing director of Tangier Lobster Company Ltd., in Tangier, N.S., said the 25 per cent tariff by China is in addition to a previous seven per cent tariff and nine per cent value added tax imposed by that country.

“It’s substantial to say the least and it comes at a time when we are already being targeted under American tariffs,” said Lamont, whose company ships live lobster to 13 countries around the world.

The company is located just over an hour away from air freight services at the Halifax Stanfield International Airport and Lamont said it has succeeded over a period of about 40 years in diversifying its export markets. It currently ships no product to the U.S. and about 15 per cent to China.

“We have always tried to be diversified and all our eggs are not in the Chinese basket that’s for sure,” he said.

However, there are companies who ship most of their live lobster to China and Lamont said it will make things difficult because new markets aren’t obtained overnight.

“All of those things take time, money, marketing and creativity, so the pivot is more challenging than people might think,” he said.

According to China’s Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council, additional 100 per cent tariffs will be imposed on Canadian rapeseed oil, oil cakes and peas, and additional 25 per cent tariffs will apply to pork and aquatic products.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 10, 2025.

By Keith Doucette