The Southern Shrimp Alliance is applauding President Trump's imposition of tariffs on imported shrimp.
Leann Bosarge, a board member at the Southern Shrimp Alliance, says she hopes the tariffs will provide a boost to the U.S. shrimping industry.
“We hope that this will be the first step to level the playing field for the U.S. domestic shrimp industry, which has been fighting unfair trade around the globe for decades now,” Bosarge said.
The six countries that account for 96 percent of all shrimp imports all have tariffs, ranging from 10 percent for Argentina and Ecuador to 46 percent for Vietnam.
Bosarge says shrimp from all of those countries are far inferior to the shrimp caught off the Louisiana coast, but up until now, it's been more cost-effective for restaurants to keep that imported shrimp in stock.
“They have an unfair advantage, where they have a lower cost of production. Sometimes, they even have subsidies propping up their facilities and their overhead. And then they pump their product full of banned antibiotics,” Bosarge explained.
According to the alliance, these top six suppliers accounted for 96 percent of all U.S. shrimp imports:
· India (42.3%) – tariff rate of 26%
· Ecuador (26.9%) – tariff rate of 10%
· Indonesia (15.4%) – tariff rate of 32%
· Vietnam (7.2%) – tariff rate of 46%
· Thailand (2.4%) – tariff rate of 36%
· Argentina (2.1%) – tariff rate of 10%
No other country accounts for more than two percent of import volume.