Making American Seafood Nice Once more: Higgins Pushes for Tariffs on International Shrimp, Crawfish

For years, Louisiana’s fishermen have watched international seafood flood our markets at rock-bottom costs. Now, which may lastly change. Congressman Clay Higgins is pushing to “Make American Seafood Nice Once more” by asking President Trump to slap tariffs of as much as 100% on imported shrimp and crawfish from China, Vietnam, and different nations.

As somebody who’s watched our native seafood trade battle towards low cost imports, I can inform you this transfer is lengthy overdue. Our business fishermen are combating an uphill battle towards international seafood that’s usually bought for lower than what it prices them to gas up a shrimp boat.

The numbers don’t lie. Louisiana shrimpers noticed their catch worth drop from $130.6 million in 2021 to simply $60.2 million in 2023. That’s cash taken straight out of U.S. fishermen’s pockets. Throughout the Gulf Coast, it’s the identical story – the overall worth of U.S. shrimp hauls fell from $521.8 million to $268.7 million in those self same years.

Wish to understand how dangerous it’s gotten? At this 12 months’s Louisiana Shrimp and Petroleum Competition in Morgan Metropolis, DNA testing confirmed 4 out of 5 distributors have been really serving international shrimp – not the native catch clients thought they have been shopping for.

It will get worse. Whereas different nations like these within the European Union examine about half of their imported seafood for security, the U.S. solely inspects about 2%. The USDA says imported seafood has failed extra security exams than another meals within the final 20 years.

“Our shrimpers and fishermen are getting crushed by international seafood that’s closely sponsored and dumped into our markets,” Higgins wrote to Trump. He’s asking for strict tariffs and more durable testing of imported seafood to degree the taking part in subject.

The timing couldn’t be extra essential. Louisiana’s seafood trade is already hurting from final 12 months’s drought that hit crawfish manufacturing arduous. “Lots of our folks can’t even get new crop loans as a result of they couldn’t repay final 12 months’s loans,” says Mike Pressure, Louisiana’s Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner.

The Louisiana Shrimp Affiliation is backing Higgins’ push for tariffs. They are saying the flood of low cost imports isn’t simply hurting our fishermen – it’s threatening our complete lifestyle on the Gulf Coast.

For these of us who care about supporting native fishermen and holding Louisiana’s seafood trade alive, these tariffs may very well be a game-changer. It’s about time we protected our personal and made American seafood nice once more.

To view the whole letter to the White Home from Clay Higgins click on right here.

Keith Lusher

Keith Lusher is an award-winning outside journalist who resides in Covington, Louisiana. He owns and operates NorthshoreFishingReport.com and writes a weekly outside column for the Slidell Impartial Newspaper. He additionally writes for the St.Tammany Parish Tourism Fee’s VisitTheNorthshore.com. He’s the previous host of The Northshore Fishing Report Radio Present and is on the board of the Louisiana Out of doors Writers Affiliation. Keith contributes to quite a few publications each on-line and in print and prides himself on selling South Louisiana’s distinctive fishery. To contact Keith electronic mail: keithlusherjr@gmail.com