From Maine Lobster to Gulf Shrimp: Inside Trump's America First Seafood Strategy and the $5 Billion Bet on American Docks
A new "U.S. Caught Seafood" label, more than $5 billion in guaranteed processing loans, Seafood.gov and a push against illegal foreign fish. Here is what the administration has rolled out this month, who qualifies, and what fishermen are saying.
By Clara Hughes
America's fishermen do some of the hardest and most dangerous work in the country. They also operate under some of the strictest rules in the world, while competing with cheap, subsidized and sometimes illegally caught foreign seafood. This month, the Trump administration announced a plan to change that. On October 23, the White House unveiled the America First Seafood Strategy and launched a new website, Seafood.gov. According to the White House fact sheet, the strategy treats U.S. fishermen as essential to "America's economic strength, food security, coastal prosperity, and national resilience." Two concrete steps came with it. The Food and Drug Administration proposed a voluntary "U.S. Caught Seafood" label, and the President made available more than $5 billion in guaranteed loans through the U.S. Department of Agriculture to expand meat and seafood processing, the White House said. "For too long, Federal seafood policy focused on regulation and market contraction rather than production and growth," the fact sheet said. "The America First Seafood Strategy reverses that approach." Keep reading with