U.S. Shrimp Industry Opposes Tariff-Free Importation of Chinese Seafood
July 24, 2026 | 3 min to read
The Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA) has submitted comments to the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) opposing any move to label Chinese seafood products as a “non-sensitive” good, a designation that would make them eligible for tariff-free importation into the United States.
The comments come in response to a USTR request last month for public input on a possible mechanism to promote reciprocal managed trade with China. Companies with strong interests in Chinese shrimp, including Zhanjiang Guolian Aquatic Products Co., Ltd. and Sunnyvale Seafood, asked that Chinese shrimp and tilapia products be deemed “non-sensitive” and have additional tariffs removed. Their argument, echoed by other seafood importer interests such as the National Fisheries Institute, is that the dominance of imports in the U.S. seafood market supports giving foreign suppliers unfettered access. Zhanjiang Guolian emphasized this rationale with respect to sources of supply for shrimp, writing: “The domestic shrimp processing industry in the United States is limited in scale, and about 70%-85% of the seafood in the United States relies on imports. Domestic production capacity cannot meet market demand.”
Earlier this year, in extensive written comments to the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) regarding its April hearing “Dark Nets, Illicit Labor – Confronting China’s IUU Fishing and Seafood Supply Chain” (Apr. 16, 2026), the Southern Shrimp Alliance detailed the broad array of problems raised by China’s seafood supply chain and described how large numbers of Chinese seafood exporters had never been subject to an inspection by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The Southern Shrimp Alliance expressed strong support for the views expressed by Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK), the Chair of the CECC, regarding whether the United States should permit seafood imports from China under any circumstances and called on the U.S. government to take steps to prohibit imports of both Chinese-origin and Chinese-processed seafood from our market.
Building on these comments, the Southern Shrimp Alliance filed a letter with the USTR on Friday demonstrating that importers have been inappropriately undervaluing Chinese seafood products shipped to the United States in order to avoid the payment of millions of dollars in duties to the U.S. Treasury. Citing examples of imports of Chinese tilapia fillets, catfish fillets, and cooked crawfish tail meat – cumulatively accounting for over 22 percent of the total value of Chinese seafood imports in 2025 – the Southern Shrimp Alliance estimated that importers had evaded over $18 million in additional ad valorem duty payments by substantially reducing the reported per pound value for these goods. In light of this egregious violation of U.S. law, the Southern Shrimp Alliance noted its adamant opposition to designating any Chinese seafood a “non-sensitive” good.
A broader analysis of Chinese seafood products points to the same pattern. Products making up well over half of the total value of China’s 2025 seafood imports showed significant declines in the declared average unit values of these goods this year compared to how these amounts were reported between 2022 and 2024. The trend cuts across a wide range of products, including tilapia, salmon, catfish, flounder, scallops, eels, swimming crabmeat, smoked oysters, and squid, all of which entered the United States at depressed values despite broader inflationary pressure.
“Chinese seafood imports already get an unfair advantage from banned antibiotics and forced labor in their supply chains. On top of that, they have been at the front of the pack when it comes to fraud in our market,” said Blake Price, Executive Director of the Southern Shrimp Alliance. “While not surprising, it is remarkable, that at the same time some importers are cheating U.S. taxpayers out of millions of dollars, others are unashamedly asking that Chinese seafood be given free access to our market. We should not be rewarding foreign companies for breaking our laws.”
Read the July 10th submission of the Southern Shrimp Alliance to the USTR in the Section 301 investigations on forced labor here.
Read the April 23rd written statement of the Southern Shrimp Alliance to the CECC with regard to the hearing “Dark Nets, Illicit Labor – Confronting China’s IUU Fishing and Seafood Supply Chain” here.
Review the Southern Shrimp Alliance’s analysis of reported per pound values for various Chinese seafood products imported into the United States here.