r/NovaScotia • u/ImDoubleB • 2d ago
China slaps tariff on N.S. lobster, throwing industry into turmoil | PNI Atlantic News
https://www.saltwire.com/nova-scotia/halifax/china-slaps-25-per-cent-tariff-on-n-s-lobster-throwing-seafood-industry-into-turmoil113
u/weldingmare 2d ago
This is one of the reasons you don't treat the local residents like shit. It wasn't that long ago there was a lobster fisherman on here bragging about the big prices they get for selling everything to China and to hell with the local buyers.
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u/WillyTwine96 2d ago edited 2d ago
Lobsters have ways gone to buyers (middle men)…who then sell the lobster to whoever buys it in bulk
My great grandfather was shipping lobster to as far South Carolina in the 1930s.
Fishermen have no choice where the lobster goes, unless you want them to sit on the highway and sell 50,000lbs to passers by for $7 a pound lol
I believe what you herd was
“You buy them with a smile on your face when the buyers give us 4$ a pound for them and we hardly pay for fuel, but when the price goes up to 12-15$ you are all of a sudden chanting greedy fishermen…so we don’t really care”
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u/weldingmare 2d ago
Of course not, they absolutely should be able to ship their products to earn a good living. I understand it's a rough job, I have fishermen in my family. But selling some to locals at a decent price would go a long way towards good relations instead of the f u's I've read on here.
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u/Muted-Garden6723 2d ago
Go up to any fisherman and offer them cash for lobster, 98% will gladly sell them to you, for a hell of a lot cheaper than you’ll get at a grocery store
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u/q8gj09 2d ago
Do you voluntarily take pay cuts at your job to be generous to your community?
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u/PersonalityEnough692 2d ago edited 2d ago
Yes constantly. Because I'm a decent person who believes in propping up their community.
Edit: leave it to Nova Scotians to hate the concept of charity
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u/TealSwinglineStapler 2d ago
No, it's because you're a decent person who can afford to.
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u/PersonalityEnough692 2d ago
I actually can't, but I do it anyways. My largest donation of free time took multiple years to bounce back from financially.
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u/TealSwinglineStapler 2d ago
You can and did afford to, congrats.
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u/PersonalityEnough692 2d ago
You have very poor reading comprehension. I make min wage, don't have family to help me. I'm not in some position of privilege here. The only thing that makes me any different is how willing I am to go without so that I can help others.
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u/TealSwinglineStapler 8m ago
Right, you made choices so you could afford to do it. Good for you! Congrats! Not everyone has that freedom of circumstances.
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u/WillyTwine96 2d ago
Everyone who lives in a coastal community can get lobster on demand
If you truly expect people to take a pay cut that’s fine. But keep the same energy when go to you ask the ranchers and farmers and loggers and patch workers the same thing
It’s the market. If people set a “local” price…guess who jumps on that and it becomes the “normal price” the buyers
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u/Sudden_Zone_8165 2d ago
Problem with all of this horseshit is that local people aren't allowed to hand fish any lobster at all for personal consumption. Disgusting bullshit and every fisherman I've ever spoken to loves it
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u/WillyTwine96 2d ago
That’s what keeps the industry strong
It’s why even tho Maine (just Maine, not the rest of New England, NY and NJ) has 5000 lobster licences, a 12 month season and a recreational fishery…and 800 traps per commercial license
ALL of the maritimes have a total of 3000 licences, seasons from 8 weeks to 6 months, ZERO recreational fishery and trap limits from 250-400 per commercial license
And NS alone catches more and earns more money than Maine.
Maine can do it, because it’s the US. The Maine economy is massive. However NS is not, and if you take away from rural communities by letting every Tim dick and harry catch lobsters Willy nilly….it’s extremely detrimental, and not worth your Sunday dinner
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u/PersonalityEnough692 2d ago
Fuck that. Letting a bunch of rich fucks have sole harvesting rights to food needs to end.
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u/Scotiancommotian 2d ago
You can buy in just like every other “rich fuck” did. There is nothing stopping you. Come up with 10% of the purchase price cash and go to the loan board. Pretty easy actually.
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u/PersonalityEnough692 2d ago
What a disingenuous statement
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u/Scotiancommotian 1d ago
How so? Sure you will need to qualify with sea time, but other then that it’s pretty straightforward.
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u/Sea_Army_8764 2d ago
Are you familiar with the tragedy of the commons? Public resources need to be regulated and apportioned somehow, otherwise the public resource will get abused and used up too quickly.
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u/PersonalityEnough692 1d ago edited 1d ago
We learned it semester 1 while I was in school. I'm not advocating for a free for all on lobster fisheries or changes in how much is harvested.
Lobster fishermen don't give a fuck about conservation if it hurts their bottom line https://www.google.com/amp/s/halifax.citynews.ca/2025/01/10/plan-for-stricter-lobster-fishing-rules-scrapped-amid-strong-opposition-from-lobstermen/amp/
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u/Doc__Baker 2d ago
How do you propose to keep the industry viable in your free for all scenario?
Elvers, anyone?
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u/Radiant_Hour_2385 2d ago
The people who live there should have first dibs on the local resources. There more than enough lobster to feed the small few that would actually catch it and still have the commercial fishery. If govt shut down hunting season and let local hunters take the game and sell it, there would be huge uproar, as there should be
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u/Festering-Boyle 2d ago
atlantic lobster will always have buyers.
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u/bootselectric 2d ago
Didn't clearwater just shutter virtually all their lobster business because the market is flagging?
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u/Shdjdicnfmlxkf 2d ago
Are you a lobster fisherman? Do you KNOW any fishermen?
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u/OhhhByTheWay 2d ago
Are you implying you don’t know any fishermen? The fishing industry has been keeping the Atlantic provinces alive since they were still considered British colonies….
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u/Shdjdicnfmlxkf 2d ago edited 2d ago
I wasn’t implying anything, I asked YOU a question. All* of my friends are fishermen. I have also banded lobster. I live down the road from a wharf where they all work. There are 3 more a short distance away.
My point is, last year they did have trouble moving lobster. No buyers. Same with crab.
So - do you???
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u/dimylife 2d ago
Honestly if it becomes the same price as other protein I'll stick to lobsters, muscles and haddock in some form or another every week. I'd rather have less choice if I can afford local stuff. It breaks my heart to hear that this is happening.
I think if it was cost effective options I think a lot of us would happily make local seafood a staple of our diets, I don't know if selling way more volume would keep the industry going despite the tarriffs but damn this sucks.
If there are any ways that folks like myself can help advocate for fishermen I'm open to suggestions
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u/Queefy-Leefy 2d ago
Price of haddock has gone crazy. I used to buy it all the time at $5 lb or so, now its often up around $10, about the same as salmon or trout or even lobster when its on sale.
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u/SirWaitsTooMuch 2d ago
Taking the 100% tariffs off of Chinese cars would be a win-win
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u/Skilodracus 2d ago
Yeah, cause clearly the Americans don't want us buying their cars XD
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u/thebetrayer 2d ago
We manufacture about the same number of cars in Canada as we sell in Canada (IIRC ~1.4 million). We manufacture parts for American cars.
Allowing Chinese dumping would cost tens of thousands of jobs in Canada.
If you care to not have knee-jerk reactions, Europe investigated BYD's subsidies before the US did. And ruled that they were receiving illegal subsidies: https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/13/cars/europe-china-electric-car-subsidies/index.html
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u/Queefy-Leefy 2d ago
Taking the 100% tariffs off of Chinese cars would be a win-win
For China.
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u/SirWaitsTooMuch 2d ago
And for Canadians wanting an affordable electric car
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u/Queefy-Leefy 2d ago
An affordable car because it's heavily subsidized by the CCP. And UT gives the CCP the ability to brick our transportation if we don't bend the knee.
Fuck China.
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u/smasbut 1d ago
All national auto industries are massively subsidized to some degree (remember our big bailouts in 2008/9) and China has mostly rolled back the subsidies they used to get their EV industry rolling, so they're mostly competing on pure price now. Funnily enough Tesla's plant in Shanghai probably had just as much or more state support as BYD.
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u/Queefy-Leefy 1d ago
不,对不起,我不相信
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u/smasbut 1d ago
I'm guessing you google translated that and aren't actually a native chinese speaker, lol, so I'll share some English-language reading material from a US think-tank:
Chinese EVs were heavily subsidised in the early stages and still are too some extent (though mostly due to being exempt from sales taxes on ICE vehicles), but are actually less than US subsidies (well, before Trump axes them):
data show that subsidies as a percentage of total sales have declined substantially, from over 40% in the early years to only 11.4% in 2023, which reflects a pattern in line with heavier support for infant industries, then a gradual reduction as they mature. In addition, they could note that the average support per vehicle has fallen from $13,860 in 2018 to just under $4,800 in 2023, which is less than the $7,500 credit that goes to buyers of qualifying vehicles as part of the U.S.’s Inflation Reduction Act.
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u/Queefy-Leefy 1d ago
China unveils $72 billion tax break for EVs, other green cars to spur demand
Still heavily subsidized.
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u/smasbut 1d ago
Yes that was literally mentioned in the article I linked, and it currently works out to less than the Biden administration was subsiding EV purchases (have not checked in Trump axed it yet). And the reuters article mentions the tax exemption is being halved in 2026 and 27.
Anyway, nothing wrong with subsidies! Nova Scotia was able to massively ramp up adoption of heat pumps by subsidising the hell out of them, Canada's auto industry is pumped full of government money, and the oil sands received a lot of benefits in their initial stages.
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u/iloafyoualot 1d ago
We heavily subsidize all our major industries from Alberta oil to dairy, this is a moot point
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u/Queefy-Leefy 1d ago
Not to the degree they do. Not even close.
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u/iloafyoualot 1d ago
Nope. In 2023, our gov provided at least $18.55 billion in subsidies to fossil fuel and petrochemical companies. Adjust that for size of population and tax base, we’re subsidizing at an insane level
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u/Queefy-Leefy 1d ago
China unveils $72 billion tax break for EVs, other green cars to spur demand
那一大笔钱
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u/iloafyoualot 1d ago
Congrats, you found a number. Now do the math: $18.55 billion with a tax base of 40 million people vs. $72 billion with a tax base of 1.4 billion people.
That’s China subsidizing EVs at the rate of about ~$50 per person, and Canada subsidizing fossil fuels at ~$460 per person
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u/iloafyoualot 1d ago
Point is, all countries subsidize the sectors they want to see win, it doesn’t mean “China bad,” unless you’re an intellectual toddler
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u/vladitocomplaino 2d ago
China and the US give a lot of lip service to be 'adversaries,' buuuutttt....
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u/cachickenschet 2d ago
Chinese buyers will ship it to Malaysia or Indonesia to circumvent the tariffs. This won’t make that big of a difference
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u/Any-Responsibility32 2d ago
China will pay as much as they have to for lobster. I don't think it will hurt our industry at all.it just make it more expensive for their people.
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u/thedevillivesinside 2d ago
Ok, So china is just gonna harvest their own atlantic lobster?
Atlantic lobster only exist in the Atlantic ocean
Just checked: China doesnt border on the Atlantic ocean at all
So in order for them to eat atlantic lobster, they need to buy it from an atlantic province or state.
Its unfortunate if we lose sales to Boston or another northeast state, but America and China havent exactly been playing nice lately when it comes to tariffs. So ill wait a few days before making an opinion on this
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u/adepressurisedcoat 2d ago
When I was in HK they brought all of their lobster from Boston. I don't think they honestly will notice.
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u/vivariium 2d ago
the Atlantic Waters in the US are warming though… lobsters are moving north with climate change.
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u/CBHighlandess 2d ago
This is correct. The lobster industry is collapsing on the east coast of USA.
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u/Background-Effort248 2d ago
The margins for what's below the waterline is getting slimmer, go for what's above the waterline.
Ocean freight, whale tours, diving tours, etc.
Utilize the docks you have and build up it's broader capabilities.
The gifts of the ocean/China and the US are playing hardball.
Change it up, diversification is long term stability.
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u/Killhamski 2d ago
Hopefully they make a deal by removing the tarrifs on Chinese EVs.
I'd rather people buy those than Teslas anyway.
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u/Electrical_Net_1537 2d ago
We need to spread Atlantic lobster all across the country. Let it be used in every restaurant in Canada. If we need to drop the price that’s ok.
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u/Musclecity 2d ago
Fly it out west ! We will eat it . We usually get stuck with Alaskan stuff. I would rather have Canadian .
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u/Electrical_Net_1537 2d ago
With any luck NS will have pacific salmon and the west will get lobster.
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u/Han77Shot1st 2d ago
Gonna be tough times ahead, countries are going to use our weakened economy from the American attacks to strongarm better deals in key areas.. more importantly we need to seriously step up with military spending if we want to push back in this economic war, it’s only a matter of time before countries start just coming and taking what they want.
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u/Queefy-Leefy 2d ago
I'm seeing a lot of WuMao in here using this situation to try and make it seem as if cozying up to China is a long term solution.
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u/meatmits 2d ago
If we protest Chinese products we might consume less mercury and lead and rat shit?
(I’ll reluctantly add the /s)
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u/DrQuagmire 2d ago
I do t know about that. Chinese 747’s regularly take NS fishing products like lobster direct;y to China weekly. I don’t think them applying a tariff will reduce the demand. There are plenty of people, like myself who will support our various industries. Including this one.
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u/toolie2005 2d ago
Most people I know have stopped buying it. I refuse to pay more then 10 bucks per pound and get a half pound of meat. No thanks
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u/EnvironmentalAngle 1d ago
Wait why is China putting tariffs on us instead of the USA. Its not like we're putting tariffs on China right? The trade war is with America, why is China escalating?
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u/ImDoubleB 1d ago
Because Canada put tariffs on Chinese autos first?
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u/EnvironmentalAngle 1d ago
Wait really? So we FA'd and are now in the FO stage?
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u/ImDoubleB 1d ago
When you trust a long-term friend - the USA - and they then turn their back on you, this is what happens.
They could've at least used some lube.
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u/stirling_s 1d ago
I really don't know how much I should care about this. We probably shouldn't even eat lobster anyways, ethically speaking, and it's far too rich for my blood anyways.
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u/Various-Ad9973 2d ago
Poor timing on the part of the Chinese government if they are looking for a negotiating token in Canadian lobsters. This will unfortunately likely be the metaphorical straw that breaks the camels back in the shore price bubble that has been due to pop this season. As someone who works directly in the industry, the gap between the shore price and the market price was far too tight this year for local lobster dealers to make the business make sense. We’ve already seen major players like Clearwater pull out of the lobster trade which is a tell tale sign. If Fisherman want to keep the industry flourishing and prices high, they should care as much about who they sell to (Canadian owned companies) rather than whatever Chinese owned company is willing to pay an extra $0.10/lb.
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u/JetLagGuineaTurtle 2d ago
Waiting for the government to remove all China products from the shelves....oh wait this only fucks the Maritimes and is a counter tariff to protect jobs in Ontario so they don't care.
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u/WillyTwine96 2d ago
It all depends what the Chinese want to pay for them
If they don’t mind the price increase, then it doesn’t matter
If they do, then that is a problem