SEAFOODNEWS.COM by John Sackton — August 24, 2014 — The entire Alaska congressional delegation, including Senators Murkowski and Begich, and Congressman Don Young, have written President Obama asking to implement a retaliatory ban on Russian seafood imports.
In the letter to the White House, Senators Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich and Congressman Don Young suggest America increase the intensity of its negotiations with Russia, and if needed, that the nation respond with a ban on Russian seafood imports They write:
"Our purpose here is to ask that your Administration respond to the Russian action with a two-step process. First, we ask that you use all diplomatic means available to persuade the Russians to immediately rescind the seafood import ban.
Second, if Russia fails to comply, we ask that a ban be imposed on Russian seafood imports to the United States.
We do not make this request lightly as there is significant seafood trade between the two countries, but in light of the direct impact on our constituent’s interests we believe it is necessary for the U.S. to respond quickly and emphatically. It was the Russian government that decided to use food, in addition to energy resources, as economic weapons, and inaction should not be an option."
This approach to Russia’s political brinksmanship has strong support from Alaska’s seafood industry. Among those endorsing the ban include Alaska General Seafoods, Alyeska Seafoods, Icicle Seafoods, North Pacific Seafoods, Ocean Beauty Seafoods, Peter Pan Seafoods, Trident Seafoods, UniSea, Westward Seafoods, and the members of the Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers.
"We did not start this fight, and we hope the Russians will call off their embargo. But a U.S. ban will signal to President Putin that America will not sit idly by while Russia disregards international law and tries to coerce the world into ignoring its transgressions through retaliatory actions," said Terry Shaff, President & CEO of UniSea Inc.
The letter also discusses two major issues in how such a ban must be implemented.
First, "we must fully coordinate with our international allies who have also been targeted. This is especially important in the case of the European Union, which is a sizeable market for both U.S. and Russian seafood products."
Second "If a ban is imposed, it is critcal that U.S. trade officials implement it in a way which tracks and covers all Russian-origin products throughout the distribution chain, including those that are re-processed and or transshipped through third countries. This is the only way the ban will be truly effective and will achieve the intended goal of protecting U.S. interests."
The reasons for these two approaches are that if the US were to boycott Russian products alone, Russian producers would rapidly undercut US pollock sales in Europe. But if the EU also adopted sanctions, it would have a significant negative impact on Russian producers.
Also, since most Russian product, other than crab, does not come to the US directly, but is reprocessed in China, any ban would have to include enforecement mechanisms to prohibit Russian products shipped via 3rd countries. Again, without this provision, the ban would not impact Russian interests who sell most of their pollock to China for further processing.
This story originally appeared on Seafood.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.