U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has stated, in a House Appropriations Committee statement, that “I hate the idea that…we have a trade deficit in fish”. One reaction to that may be to reduce limits on domestic fishing, another would be to restrict imports from other countries. The latter would also play into the Trump administration’s policy metric of reducing the trade deficit with other countries. The case also comes as Vietnam has launched a WTO reference of U.S. import restrictions on catfish, as outlined in Panjiva research of

Panjiva data shows that the U.S. ran a deficit ( exports less imports) of $11.6 billion in fish and related products in the 12 months to January 31. While both imports and exports expanded by 9% on a year earlier, imports have grown more steadily over time with a 5.8% five year growth rate vs. 1.1% for exports.

Chart compares U.S. imports and exports of fish and related food products. Source: Panjiva

Should the administration turn to tariffs rather than fishery deregulation, the biggest seaborne import lines in the past year were shrimps/prawns from India (10.0% of all imports), tilapia from China (7.2%) and catfish from Vietnam (6.5%).

Chart segments U.S. imports of fish and related food products by product (HS-6) and country of origin. Source: Panjiva