The U.S. maintains a $9.36 billion trade deficit in seafood, according to government reports for 2009, the last full year of published figures by the US Commerce Department.
If there is a silver lining behind the figures — they show exports of only $3.74 billion against imports of $13.10 million, the largest portion from China — it is that the constraints of U.S. output derive largely from intense conservation efforts here in U.S. waters.
Those have made the U.S. the global leader in fisheries management policies that foster sustainable stocks, as federal fisheries administrator Eric Schwaab asserted in multiple appearances during this week's International Boston Seafood Show.
But a dedicated fund for marketing domestic seafood products that Congress ordered drawn from the hundreds of millions of dollars collected in import tariffs on fish products has never materialized.
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