Nova Scotia lobster industry watching China talks closely

Chinese tariffs on Canadian seafood are impacting the Maritime lobster industry.

Nova Scotia’s lobster industry is closely watching as Prime Minister Mark Carney and several ministers are in China for high-level diplomatic talks aimed at improving the rocky trade relationship between the two countries.

Those in the lobster industry here had been pressing Ottawa to make inroads with China and establish some dialogue once again and look at the tariffs that have sharply reduced access to one of their most important seafood markets.

“We’ve been asking them for about ten months now for the two parties just to sit down and have a conversation,” said Kris Vascotto, executive director with the Nova Scotia Seafood Alliance.

China once accounted for about 40 per cent of Nova Scotia’s live lobster exports, representing nearly $600 million worth of product shipped there in 2024. But exports have dropped significantly since China imposed a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian seafood, a move widely seen as retaliation for Ottawa’s 100 per cent tariff on Chinese electric vehicle imports.

Industry leaders say the impact of the seafood tariffs have been swift and costly.

Vascotto estimates the province has lost between $400 and $500 million in seafood sales to China since the tariffs were introduced and it’s impacting the costs of lobster at the wharf here.

“When you put a twenty-five per cent tariff on a product, that trickles all the way down the value chain,” said Vascotto. “And we’re experiencing a lower wharf price just as we begin the winter season.”

The tariffs have hit companies like the Tangier Lobster Company that deal exclusively in live lobster, which is a premium product with strong demand in China, especially in the last five years.

But Stewart Lamont, the managing director of Tangier Lobster Company, located on Nova Scotia’s Eastern Shore, says his exports to China have nearly disappeared.

“We’ve done precious little export to China since April,” said Lamont, adding his company has shipped just four or five loads to China in the past year.

With exports to China down by nearly 30 per cent, the industry has been forced to seek out new markets, including parts of Southeast Asia. While exporters like Lamont say diversification has helped, they caution those markets cannot replace China’s scale and appetite for the live lobster product.

Industry leaders remain cautiously optimistic but do not expect any quick fixes from the current diplomatic talks, noting any gains for the seafood sector may come with may come as a trade-off and impact other sectors across the Canadian economy.

In a statement to CTV News, the province’s department of fisheries and aquaculture says it remains hopeful that the Prime Minister Carney’s trip to China will help re-open trade channels with the Nova Scotia seafood sector, which exported $2.4 billion is seafood around the globe last year.

“We are optimistic that the Prime Minister’s visit to China will help strengthen trade relationships and rebuild this important relationship,” said Kent Smith, Nova Scotia’s minister for fisheries and aquaculture

Smith traveled to China in October, on a trade mission to promote Nova Scotia seafood and talk with importers there, he told reporters following the trip that he hopes to return soon.

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