China's new tariffs are affecting lobster industry in Maine, Sen. Angus King says
Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, claimed in a recent interview that the trade war with China is already affecting his home state’s lobster industry.
King told Bloomberg Monday the tariffs are being paid for by American consumers.
“Consumers are going to pay the tariffs,” he said. “It’s a tax on a lot of consumer goods ... $200 billion coming in.”
King used the lobster industry in Maine as an example.
“The retaliation is affecting all kind of sectors,” he explained. “I’ll give you one example lobsters from Maine. Exporting lobsters from Maine to China, one of our markets we worked for years to develop, is now virtually dead because of the retaliatory tariffs of the Chinese.”
The U.S. and China announced they are raising tariffs on tens of billions of dollars’ worth of each other’s imports, escalating a trade war. On Monday, China increased tariffs on $60 billion of U.S. goods. The move came after President Trump pushed up tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese imports from 10 percent to 25 percent Friday.
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Maine International Trade Center said last summer exports from Maine to China were “down about 50 percent,” affecting the lobster industry the most.
“I think lobsters were down 80 percent,” Wade Merritt, president of the Maine International Trade Center, told WGME.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.