Section 301 Restrictions on Seafood Imports Possible Under Presidential Directive

President Trump issued April 17 an executive order that directs a number of actions designed to help make the U.S. “the world’s dominant seafood leader,” including by addressing unfair trade practices, eliminating unsafe imports, and reducing regulatory burdens on domestic producers.

– The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will examine the relevant trade practices of major seafood-producing nations, including with regard to illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing and the use of forced labor in the seafood supply chain, and consider appropriate responses, including pursuing solutions through negotiations or trade enforcement authorities such as Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974.

– The Department of Commerce will immediately consider revising or rescinding recent expansions of the Seafood Import Monitoring Program and further improve the program to more effectively target high-risk shipments from nations that routinely violate international fishery regulations.

– The DOC and the Department of Homeland Security will use cost savings from the SIMP to improve thorough checks at U.S. ports to prevent IUU seafood from entering the market.

– The DOC will further consider options to use improved technology to identify foreign fishery-related violations.

– The DOC and USTR will assess seafood competitiveness issues and jointly develop a comprehensive seafood trade strategy to address unfair competition, low environmental and labor standards, and illegally-sourced seafood from abroad while expanding access to foreign markets for U.S. seafood products.

– The DOC will develop and implement a strategy to promote production, marketing, sale, and export of U.S. fishery and aquaculture products and strengthen domestic processing capacity.