Tariffs have caused 'chaos, confusion' for Nova Scotia's seafood sector

Jean Laroche · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 06, 2025 7:43 PM EST | Last Updated: 8 hours ago

Nova Scotians successful the seafood manufacture are utilized to dealing with uncertainty, whether it's unsmooth seas, the ebb and travel of marketplace prices oregon rising costs — but the provincial fisheries curate says the current tariff quality with the United States has caused a antecedently chartless level of upheaval. 

Kent Smith asked a staffer to link with manufacture players this week to find retired however they were coping with the imaginable of U.S. President Donald Trump's caller tariffs.

"A communal taxable crossed the committee was uncertainty, chaos, confusion, not needfully knowing however to pay, who to pay," Kent told reporters Thursday astatine Province House. "There was a batch of chaos."

Speaking earlier the latest intermission connected 25 per cent tariffs connected Canadian imports, Kent said it was imperative for the manufacture to find markets different than the U.S., and that hunt would instrumentality him and manufacture representatives southbound of the borderline aboriginal this period for the Boston Seafood Expo.

"I admit the irony, yes, but we request to link our exporters with importers," said Smith. "It conscionable truthful happens that this planetary seafood amusement takes spot successful Boston, and that's wherever the buyers and importers volition beryllium from each implicit the world. We'll beryllium doing everything that we tin to link our exporters with planetary buyers."

N.S. sent implicit $1B worthy of seafood to U.S. successful 2024

Nova Scotia is Canada's apical seafood exporter, sending $1.23 cardinal worth to the U.S. successful 2024. For comparison, $614 cardinal worthy was exported to China past year and different $241 cardinal to the European Union.

Smith said he's hoping that section companies volition beryllium capable to, astatine the precise least, marque caller connections up of the world's largest seafood amusement successful Spain later this spring.

"I've heard that a batch of relationships get initiated successful Boston and past by the clip we get to Barcelona successful May, we get immoderate deals done, and immoderate merchandise really moving from 1 spot to another," helium said.

Premier Tim Houston told reporters, earlier Washington announced the latest "pause" connected immoderate but not each tariffs, that impermanent measures were not the slightest spot adjuvant oregon appreciated.

"The 1 month, 1 month, 1 month, it's incredibly mean-spirited," said Houston. "We can't unrecorded for 4 years, 1 period astatine a time.

"So I'm hopeful that the tariffs travel disconnected and the president realizes the harm he'll bash to the American system and the Canadian economy."

'We'll get done it,' N.S. fisheries curate says

Smith tried to enactment a brave look connected what has been an incredibly disruptive few weeks for the seafood industry.

"Crises are not overseas for our state to woody with," said Smith. "This 1 is causing a batch of uncertainty.

"We'll get done it."