White House Vows to Boost U.S. Seafood with Fewer Rules
Published Date: 4/22/2025
Presidential Document
Summary
The U.S. is boosting its seafood game by cutting red tape, fighting unfair foreign trade, and protecting American fishermen. This means fewer rules holding back our fishing industry, safer seafood on your plate, and stronger coastal jobs. Starting now, expect smarter policies and new actions to help America catch and sell more homegrown seafood, closing the $20 billion trade gap.
Analyzed Economic Effects
6 provisions identified: 6 benefits, 0 costs, 0 mixed.
Cutting Red Tape for Commercial Fishermen
You run a commercial fishing or seafood processing business: within 30 days of April 17, 2025 the Secretary of Commerce must identify the most heavily overregulated fisheries and immediately consider suspending, revising, or rescinding fishery-specific regulations. Regional Fishery Management Councils must provide updated recommendations within 180 days to reduce burdens, stabilize markets, and increase production.
More Fishing Permits and Modern Data
The Secretary of Commerce will direct the National Marine Fisheries Service to expand exempted fishing permit programs and, as soon as practicable, incorporate less expensive, more reliable technologies and cooperative research into fishery assessments to modernize data collection and improve responsiveness to real-time ocean conditions.
America First Seafood Marketing Push
The Secretary of Commerce and Secretary of Agriculture must develop and implement an "America First Seafood Strategy" to promote production, marketing, sale, and export of U.S. fishery and aquaculture products and to strengthen domestic processing capacity; the program will also accelerate USDA efforts to educate consumers and increase seafood purchases in nutrition programs.
Trade Strategy to Tackle Unfair Seafood Practices
Within 60 days of April 17, 2025 the Secretary of Commerce and the U.S. Trade Representative must assess seafood competitiveness and jointly develop a comprehensive seafood trade strategy to improve foreign market access and address unfair trade practices, including illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing and unjustified non-tariff barriers; the U.S. Trade Representative will also examine forced labor concerns and consider responses including under section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974.
Targeted Import Checks to Block Illegal Seafood
The Secretary of Commerce, with HHS and Homeland Security, must immediately consider revising or rescinding recent expansions of the Seafood Import Monitoring Program for unnecessary species and better target high-risk shipments; the agencies shall use cost savings to improve checks at U.S. ports to prevent illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) seafood from entering the market and consider improved technology to detect foreign fishery violations.
Review Monuments for Commercial Fishing Access
Within 180 days of April 17, 2025 the Secretary of Commerce, in consultation with the Secretary of the Interior, must review all existing marine national monuments and provide recommendations to the President on any that should be opened to commercial fishing, considering consistency with preservation of historic and scientific objects identified in the original proclamations.
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