The Current - What will the China-Canada trade deal mean for Atlantic Canadians?

Episode Date: January 20, 2026

Fishing is at the heart of our east coast provinces — but Atlantic Canadians have been struggling for months amidst a global trade war and high tariffs on Canadian seafood from China. Now that China has dropped some of those heavy hitting tariffs on Canadian seafood, Atlantic Canadians are hopeful this will relieve some of that pressure — but many say more needs to be done to diversify our trading partners to create a more resilient economy for future generations of fishers.

This ascent isn't for everyone. You need grit to climb this high this often. You've got to be an underdog that always overdelivers. You've got to be 6,500 hospital staff, 1,000 doctors all doing so much with so little. You've got to be Scarborough. Defined by our uphill battle and always striving towards new heights. And you can help us keep climbing. Donate at lovescarbro.cairro.ca.

This is a CBC podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway, and this is the current podcast. If we don't have the lobster fishery, then we don't have our community. So that's how important the lobster fishery is to Southwest Nova. Kevin Donne has been fishing lobster for 49 years. He has seen the industry go through highs and lows, including China, imposing a 25% tariff on Canadian seafood last March. When the tariff come on, we've seen the effects are right away.

I mean, it's just the lobster places just plummet. right? Somebody has to pay for the tariff, well, that would be us. They take the tariff off. I mean, price goes back up. We'll see the results right away. That tariff on some seafood will soon be removed now that Canada and China have reached a trade deal. And according to Captain Casey DeMings, who's been on the water for over a decade, that's good news, not only for the fishers, but for the entire region. The fishing industry is, it's everything for these small towns. If we don't have our fishing industry in these small towns, then they become ghost

towns. We know that the U.S. is unpredictable. We can't pull all of our eggs in one basket. Fingers crossed that the powers that be will look after us that way, and we try to get some markets and try to share our product with the world because, I mean, I'm biased, but I think that our lobster is some of the best. Stuart Lamont is managing director of Tangier Lobster Company Limited. He buys lobster from fishers, like Casey and Kevin, exports them all around the world, and he is with me in our Halifax studio. Good morning. We heard there, people talk about how, I mean, it's everything, the lobster industry, the seafood industry in this province. How would you describe what the seafood industry means to Atlantic Canada?

I would say it's an overwhelming sector. It's a $3 billion contribution to the economy of Atlantic Canada, particularly in rural communities. Both of those fissures come from small rural communities. And they talked about when that industry goes out. I mean, those communities turn into ghost towns. Yes. Well, we don't anticipate that happening, but we do realize the risks they're at play. This is geopolitics is taking over the world. I entered the lobster business and now I have to focus on geopolitics, as do they. So we think there's a strong future for Atlantic lobster. It's a superb product. I agree with them completely and market diversification is the key. And so with, I mean, somebody described it as the boot hoax. the neck in some ways with the tariffs being removed. What does that mean for the business?

It means that an impediment to normal business practice has been removed in the People's Republic of China. Since last April, we've had a 25% additional tariff, which meant a 41% aggregate tariff. So take my prices, add the freight charges to the People's Republic of China, and then add 41% on top of that, it was essentially a deal breaker. So this will help substantially. It will re-engage, reopen a market. How important is that market to folks here? It's highly significant.

China historically over the last five years has been about 40% of the world market. America has been 40%, China has been 40%, and the rest of the world divvy up the balance of the 20%. So it has diminished since April rather significantly from 40%, but there's every chance that it will resume once again. You're confident that you can get a foothold back into China? We have wonderful clients. China is a challenging market.

There's no point in pretending otherwise. There's a massive appetite. It's a market where people overwhelmingly like seafood and shellfish in particular, but it's price sensitive. So the China market has not been willing to pay the same prices that we achieve in Europe or the Middle East or other markets around the world. So we have worked to do in Atlantic Canada to increase our quality, increase our brand, and try to achieve comparable pricing in China. What about it in the United States? I mean, you have Kuzma up for review this year.

And so you can maybe take a sigh of relief, but there's a dark cloud that's not on the horizon, but it's over there somewhere. You can see it on the radar. Yeah, I don't feel any sigh of relief at the moment. Forgive me. If the Kuzma agreement were renegotiated and extended, as all Canadians hope it will be, that would be tremendous. At the moment, it looks like a 50-50 proposition. And so for those fissures that we just heard from, I mean, they, full disclosure, I enjoyed some of that product last night. They talk about how it's some of the best in the world, but they're also really worried.

Yes, they have every reason to be worried. given the uncertainty around the world. So it's the responsibility of exporters like me to position ourselves in as many countries, in as many markets, and be as creative as possible. So we've always diversified in our company. We're in 13 countries now. I'd like to be in two or three more by the end of the year.

But you feel this is, I mean, at the very least, a hint of a good news story. Oh, it is a good news story because it's a re-engagement. I had a colleague who told me many years ago, better to talk than not. Well, now we're talking again. A tariff has been removed. It's positive. Stuart Lamont is managing director of Tangier Lobster Company Limited.

The seafood industry in Atlantic Canada has been fueling pressure from these tariffs, as Stewart mentioned, for almost a year. Chris Vasquistosado has been asking the federal government for months to negotiate a trade deal to relieve some of that pressure. He's executive director of Nova Scotia Seafood Alliance and is in Clementsville, this morning. Chris, good morning to you. Good morning, Matt. Thank you very much for the time. How significant to you is this news that China has, at the very least, temporarily agreed

to drop a 25% tariff on lobster and crab? This is really significant for the industry. I mean, your last guest described it very well. Essentially, this was an impediment to us being able to compete in that market with other species that are trying to fight for the same shelf space. It also represents a major outlet for our product, so being able to get that free-flowing access back into that market It means we're not going to lose that market share, and we're going to be able to bring value back to the entire value chain, whether you're an exporter, whether you're a buyer,

whether you're a tankos operator, whether you're a fisherman. How quickly do you think the industry can rebound? These tariffs are expected to be dropped in March. That's not a month and a bit away. The industry I expect is going to rebound quite quickly, and there's a few reasons for this. First, of course, we're going to be priced back into the market with competing species. The second actually is more related to it.

aspect that happened in one of our competing areas for production of product going into China, where there was a large series of monsoons, which meant that even now there's an actual opening in the market for our product. That means that once we start making the product available and it's priced right, we expect that customers are going to line up again. In fact, we're already hearing a lot of advanced interest in preparation for this March 1st deadline. You've been calling on the federal government to make seafood a priority for months. Tell me a little bit more about that because I mean, Stewart talked about the idea that geopolitics are, you know, coming into the world of the seafood industry. Do you feel like the seafood that the product that

you're involved in was overlooked in those conversations? There's been a lot of talk about canola, about the auto sector, about pork, for example. Has seafood been overlooked in that conversation? You raised a great point. We've sat back and when these tariffs were announced, we immediately threw up the signal asking, please, let's open the conversation, open the dialogue with China to understand how we can resolve this, especially given that this was related to trade issues that were not at all associated with our sector and more focused in Central Canada. Since then, we've heard a lot of media activity, whether it be pork, whether it be canola, all surrounding this EV tariff piece.

And seafood has largely been left out of the conversation, despite it being the backbone of the Nova Scotian and the Atlantic Canadian economy. How do you understand that? Why do you think that was? Honestly, in some respects, perhaps we just make enough noise. That's why we were behind the scenes. You know, we've been sending letters to the prime minister. We've been engaging our MPs, engaging our MLAs. The province has been a fantastic advocate for us. So it was actually quite rewarding and quite nice to see this actually be resolved on a trip that we didn't think it was going to happen.

Do you think that you can make everybody happy? The prime minister's got a tough job in front of them. You already have Premier of Ontario saying that if you are letting Chinese EVs into this country, that you're going to hollow out the auto sector in his province. I mean, there are winners and losers, it feels like, in this. Can you make everybody happy? That's always the problem with trade and politics. I don't think you can really make everybody happy all of the time.

Even with this announcement that's already happened, we still have about 20 to 30 percent for value of products going into China from Nova Scotia that are still covered by those retaliatory tariffs. So our sector is still being hit by these retaliatory tariffs, just the same as the auto sector. The pork sector did not see any of those tariffs get lifted. We do have to step back and say, you know, we believe that the federal government took a balanced approach. They did not open the borders entirely to electric vehicles from China. They're taking a measured approach.

The same time, China did not open all the tariffs off of that were based on retaliation. So really, we do have to give some faith in the federal government here and just say it's a balance and we'll see where we go. Do you worry, I mean, these tariffs are only suspended until the end of the year. Do you worry that they could be reimposed or maybe be a bargaining tool for other industries? Most certainly. That's always the way that geopolitics seems to go. We did see a lot of positive language in the communiquees that came from the Chinese government and from prime ministers, our prime minister. At the same time, there's a commitment to increasing exports by about 50% where the seafood sector is very well-based to achieve that based upon the client base and the customer base.

So yes, there will always be headwinds on the horizon, just as you mentioned with Kuzma earlier on. But at the end of the day, we do have positive signals. We have not seen anything negative in this relationship over the last week, which suggests that we might be in for a bit of a positive future here. And it's all about relationships. Can you just talk, we just have to let you go, but can you just talk finally about what this means for the communities and the fissures that are in this industry? As we heard, I mean, folks are saying that this is everything to their town. It really is.

I mean, if you think about it, the rural families. of Nova Scotia is a lot of small, distinct communities that are supported by the harvesting sector and the plants that are supporting those harvesting sectors. Once we start to lose value, that goes right back to the people that are working on the boats and the people that are working in the plants. We have 20,000 people working in this industry in Nova Scotia. Once we are able to get rid of these tariffs and we begin to see that value that historically has been having to pay to get that product into China, that's now going to go to the dealers, it's going to go to the people on the boats, It's going to go to the captain and it's going to go to their families.

So overall, this is going to lift the prosperity of everybody involved. Chris, good to speak with you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for the time. Chris Viscato is executive director of the Nova Scotia Seafood Alliance. This has been the current podcast. You can hear our show Monday to Friday on CBC Radio 1 at 8.30am at all time zones. You can also listen online at cbc.ca.ca slash the current or on the CBC Listen app or wherever you get your podcasts.

My name is Matt Galloway. Thanks for listening. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca.ca slash podcasts.