Trump’s tariff threats loom large over Newfoundland’s crab fishery

Garrett Barry has the latest on ‘very alarming’ concerns in the Maritimes as the crab industry, which heavily relies on the U.S., braces for tariffs.

Even though Newfoundland and Labrador’s snow crab season at least eight weeks away, Doug Trainor is hard at work getting ready for this year’s fishery.

His boat, D.R.A Enterprises, is hoisted up on dry ground in Petty Harbour, where he’s replacing the engine and working with his son on other upgrades.

It’s a big investment – tens of thousands of dollars – but after last year’s unrest in the crab fishery, which saw big protests at the Confederation Building in St. John’s, he says he felt like this season would be more predictable, safer and profitable.

“We figured it would be good this year, this was going to be the year,” he said. “Then, all of a sudden, Trump came out.”

U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s threats of steep tariffs on Canadian products entering the United States has stirred a lot of industries in the country, but Newfoundland’s fishery is particularly susceptible.

Tariffs threaten crab fishery

About 64 per cent of the province’s seafood exports head to the United States, according to the last numbers published by the provincial government in 2023. And for snow crab, the province’s most lucrative fishery, that number jumps to 83 per cent.

Snow crab is where fish harvesters make most of their profit. That one species is responsible for almost 70 per cent of the revenue to inshore fishermen in 2024 — hundreds of millions of dollars — eclipsing cod, halibut, capelin and other seafood.

“Crab is 99 per cent of the fishery right now,” explained Trainor.

Who should pay for it?

Trump’s threat means more disruption in the fishing industry, and it will surely bring more conflict between the Fish, Food and Allied Workers union (FFAW) — which represents fish harvesters — and the seafood processors over who should bare the financial blow.

That’s because Canadian seafood processors and the shippers likely try to reduce their ticket prices in order to keep their products competitive, according to Geoff Irvine, who directs the Lobster Council of Canada.

That means less money to pay the individual harvesters and other dealers.

“We’re expecting it will just cause price pressure all through the value chain,” he said.

The lobster industry, like the crab industry, is very reliant on sales into the United States. About 60 per cent of lobster exports go south of the border.

But even if a tariff is applied — and even if it’s 25 per cent, as the president-elect is proposing for Canadian products— there are still a lot of questions about what that will mean.

“We also don’t know how long these tariffs will stay on, and we don’t know how much they’re going to be,” Irvine said.

“We’re assuming it would be dramatic, but we don’t know.”

Dwan Street, the newly elected president of the FFAW, says harvesters cannot afford to bear the brunt of the risk themselves.

“We’ve had a couple of really tough years,” she said. “We went from historic highs during the COVID years on snow crab prices, to just terrible, terrible lows.”

The average price paid to fish harvesters for a pound of crab fell to $3.52 last year, down from $7.37 in 2021.

“With the cost of living, cost of fuel, operating expenses right now, it’s just not feasible to operate on those low prices,” Street said.

With so many unknowns, she said she wants to see the risk shared between fish harvesters and the province’s fish plants, who buy almost all the fish caught in the province and process it for sale to the United States.

On Wednesday, provincial premiers met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other members of the federal cabinet and agreed, with the exception of Alberta Premier Daniel Smith, that all options are on the table to respond.

That includes retaliatory tariffs, or even restrictions on energy sales into the United States.

In Newfoundland, the FFAW and the Association of Seafood Processors have also spoken this week about Trump’s tariff threats.

Trainor is predicting a troubled year in the markets for crab harvesters. But his spirits are high.

“If fishing was easy, anybody would be at it,” he joked.