Characteristics of the U.S. Seafood Trade Deficit

Trade is a critical component of the U.S. seafood industry's supply and demand. In 2018 total seafood imports were $22.4 billion and total exports were $5.6 billion with a trade deficit of approximately $16.8 billion. Furthermore, imports and re-imports are reported to constitute greater than 85% of domestic seafood consumption. Recognizing the importance of the U.S. seafood trade, an interagency Seafood Trade Task Force, cochaired by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Office of the United States Trade Representative, was initiated in May of 2020 through the "Executive Order on Promoting American Seafood Competitiveness and Economic Growth." The objectives of the Executive Order are to explore policies to improve access to foreign markets, reduce barriers to exports, and more generally to promote seafood trade. Given this recent focus on the seafood trade deficit, we thought it important to describe critical aspects of the deficit. We do this by providing detailed case studies of eight U.S. harvest species categories with large trade flows.