Seafood exporters write to President AKD; urges to renegotiate high tariff with US

Monday, 7 April 2025 05:44 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Seafood Exporters’ Association of Sri Lanka has urged President Anura Kumara Disanayake to immediately negotiate with the US Government to reduce the high 44% reciprocal tariff.

In a letter to the President the SEASL has requested him to negotiate with the US to take the tariff back to zero or to a minimum so that industry can continue to grow the sector and reach the target of $ 650 million in exports and create over 15,000 skilled jobs by 2028. The written representations was made by SEASL Chairman Dilhan Fernando with copies to Fisheries Minister and Secretary as well as EDB Chairman.

The letter also stated the following:

Sri Lanka exports around $ 50 million worth of seafood annually to US and until 2 April 2025, the tax on Sri Lankan seafood exports to US was at zero duty. The main exported products are pasteurised crab meat, frozen shrimp and fresh and frozen tuna.

Although it’s only about 20% of the current seafood exports from Sri Lanka, US market was single market that our sector was hoping to increase in the next few years with the export of shrimps and crabs in order to achieve our target of $ 650 million seafood exports by 2028. However, with the announcement of 44% reciprocal tax on Sri Lanka recently, all our buyers have called and told us to hold off all shipments unless we are able to absorb this tax increase.

For pasteurised crab meat which is a highly value-added product, US market accounts for 100% of pasteurised crab meat exports of Sri Lanka today and we really don’t have any alternative market for this product. Our expectation is to grow this sector from $ 20 million to over $ 100 million in the next 3 years

Similarly, the US is the single largest importer of shrimp in the world today and currently accounts for more than 85% of Sri Lanka’s shrimp exports. However, our 3-year plan to double Sri Lanka overall seafood exports is purely based on increasing shrimp exports currently at $ 27 million to over $ 300 million in the next 3 years. For fresh tuna, although our main market is Europe, the USA market has been long standing market for high quality sashimi grade tuna. Also, USA is a very strong frozen market for tuna and other fish.

It is quite evident that unless we are unable to negotiate a lower tariff, the only option we have is to reduce the 44% increase by reducing the raw material price from the fisherman and farmers which would greatly affect their livelihoods, and I don’t think it would be sustainable.

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