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Maine and Canada's highly integrated lobster industries may face impacts under potential tariffs

A lobster fisherman hauls a trap, Thursday, Sept. 8, 2022, off of Kennebunkport, Maine. The conservation group, Seafood Watch, has added lobster to its "red list" as a species to avoid. They say current management measures do not do enough to prevent entanglements of fishing gear with whales.
Robert F. Bukaty
/
AP
A lobster fisherman hauls a trap, Thursday, Sept. 8, 2022, off of Kennebunkport, Maine.

Trade experts say American consumers should expect higher prices for lobster, under a proposed 25% tariff on Canadian goods.

Tariffs were initially set to go into effect Tuesday, but on Monday evening, President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a last minute deal to pause them for another 30 days.

The Maine and Canadian lobster industries are highly integrated, said Kristin Vekasi, a political science professor with the University of Maine.

Some lobster that is caught here in Maine is shipped to Canada, where it's processed and sold to third markets, or back to the United States.

And Vekasi said if Canada eventually imposes retaliatory tariffs on American lobster, there's a possibility that the same product will be taxed twice.

"That could lead to real lobster inflation for consumers that could, of course, have downstream effects on restaurants, on lobster pounds on the tourism industry more broadly," she said.

Lobster was not on the initial list of U.S. imports that Canada included in a package of proposed retaliatory tariffs. But Canadian officials said they plan to impose another round of tariffs on U.S. imports weeks later.