USDA Announces Tariff Relief for the Seafood Industry

On Sept. 9, USDA released the details of $530 million Seafood Trade Relief Program (STRP), which will provide direct support to eligible seafood species that have suffered more than $5 million in retaliatory trade war. Retaliatory tariffs remain in place on U.S. seafood exports to China. The affected species include Atka mackerel, crab (Dungeness, king, snow, southern tanner), flounder, geoduck, goosefish, herring, lobster, Pacific cod, Pacific Ocean perch, pollock, sablefish, salmon, sole, squid, tuna and turbot. The new STRP, created by USDA, will be funded by the Commodity Credit Corporation and administered by USDA’s Farm Service Agency.

Producers will be subjected to benefit limitations, with no person or legal entity receiving more than $250,000, and an adjusted gross income limit of $900,000, unless at least 75% of a person’s AGI comes directly from farming, ranching, forestry, seafood harvesting or related activities.