Maritime industries scramble to mitigate potential tariff impact

A train carries cargo from Halifax. (Jonathan MacInnis/CTV News Atlantic)

The MV Ceci arrived in Halifax port after first picking up a load of soybeans in Quebec. It took three days to fill the ship with product grown in the Maritimes.

The cargo is will soon be heading to Europe.

With a potential 25 per cent tariff looming when Donald Trump takes office, Kim Batherson, general manager of Halifax Grain Elevator Ltd., is grateful none of their products goes to the U.S.

“I think there’s a lot of uncertainty right now with what’s going on with our neighbours to the south so I don’t think that for us here it’s not going to affect us,” Batherson says.

That’s not the case in other sectors.

“In 2023, $1.63 billion worth of lobster was shipped to the U.S. from Canada,” says Geoff Irving, executive director of the Lobster Council of Canada.

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Irvine is part of a group representing seafood, grain and meats that just sat down with Minister of Agriculture Lawrence MacAulay to talk tariffs that, if imposed, could Affect the entire value chain from harvesters to exporters.

Irvine also voiced concerns about Canada applying counter tariffs on importing American lobster.

“It’s very interdependent, much like the auto sector. We sell 60 per cent of our lobster in frozen and live form to the U.S. but we buy 40 per cent of their lobster to process in Canada and sell back to them,” Irvine says. “We’re very active working with American companies that buy lobster here and have production facilities here, we’re actively working with associations there to advocate in lobby on our behalf in Washington.”

Finding new markets for Nova Scotia seafood has been an ongoing challenge so simply shifting the amount that goes to the United States to another destination is difficult.

“I think it’s very simplistic and wrongheaded to think that we can turn our backs on the American marketplace. It always has been and always will be an important market for Canadian seafood,” says Colin Sproul, president of the Bay of Fundy Inshore Fishermen’s Association. “There’s a lot of wealth in America and a lot of the high-value seafood products, the best seafood in the world comes from Nova Scotia. It demands high value markets and America will always be one of those.”

Premier Dennis King and a delegation from Prince Edward Island are en route to New England to reinforce the importance of tariff-free trade between the regions.

Monday afternoon five of the Canada’s largest energy industry associations announced they have formed a group to support the push against the threat of a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian exports, including Canadian oil and natural gas.