U.S. seafood sent to China for processing and re-export will be spared retaliatory tariffs, which will ease the bite of the sanctions for Seattle-based companies that rely on Chinese labor to process salmon, pollock, crab and other products.
The clarification of China's tariffs policy was announced y John Henderschedt, NOAA Fisheries' director of international affairs, after consultations with the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.
The North Pacific fishing industry, which harvests off Alaska, exported more than $750 million worth of products to China in 2017.
The 25 percent U.S. seafood tariffs announced this month by China apply to all products consumed within that nation. Other products _ including much of the Alaska salmon, pollock and crab that goes into China _ undergo additional processing there, and are then re-exported to other nations. That makes them exempt from the tariffs.
When China announced the tariffs, it was unclear whether they would apply to reprocessed seafood.
Henderschedt said some fishmeal products also will not be subject to the 25 percent tariff.
The tariffs are part of an escalating China-U.S. trade clash. China announced them shortly after the Trump administration announced 25 percent tariffs on about $34 billion worth of Chinese exports to the United States. Those tariffs, scheduled to take effect July 6, came in response to what the Trump administration said were unfair trade practices by China.
