Maine lobster no longer included in Canada tariffs
Lobsterman Chris Anderson loads his traps onto his trailer in Port Clyde in March 2023. Maine's lobster industry would have been "devastated" by 25% Canadian seafood tariffs, the state lobstermen's association said. (Derek Davis/Staff Photographer)
Canada will no longer include seafood in its 25% retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. — a win for Maine’s fisheries amid a quickly evolving trade war.
Mark Carney, Canada’s prime minister, announced new duties Tuesday in retaliation for 50% U.S. tariffs that went into effect this past weekend. Starting on Sept. 8, Canada’s “dollar for dollar” tariffs were expected to impact $20 billion worth of U.S. goods, including seafood — Maine’s biggest export to Canada, worth almost $300 million.
But Canada’s finance ministry posted on X late Wednesday evening that, “to protect against broader economic harms,” the country was removing seafood and fish products from the list of products to be taxed.
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“Keeping seafood tariff-free protects our shared supply chain and avoids unnecessary economic harm on both sides of the border,” Patrice McCarron, the executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, said in a statement Thursday morning.
“We appreciate Canada’s decision to listen to the concerns raised by the seafood industry and remove seafood from these tariffs,” McCarron’s statement continued. “We urge both governments to continue protecting the longstanding tariff-free trade in lobster that benefits fishermen, businesses and coastal communities throughout North America.”
Before the tariff was rescinded, the lobstermen’s group had said that the industry was “deeply concerned” about the potential impact of a 25% tax on fishery products, especially going into Maine’s critical fall fishing season.
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Lobstermen are already facing difficult harvests and, the association said, “razor-thin margins.” New fees on Maine’s lobster industry’s largest export partner would be “devastating to fishermen and coastal communities,” McCarron said in the statement on Wednesday.
Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, used similar language to describe the impact to the lobster industry in a statement earlier this week. He said it would have been a “hammer blow to hardworking Maine people.”
“The lobster industry and Maine’s economy dodged a bullet,” King said in an interview with the Portland Press Herald on Thursday. “But it was a bullet that we never should have had to cope with in the first place.”
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King said that, from his perspective, the Trump administration doesn’t appear to be acting in the best interests of Maine — that “it would be it would be one thing if there was a point; I don’t think the president understands trade.”
In an ordinary year, King said, almost half of Maine’s fall lobster catch is exported to Canada for processing. And even though lobstermen will no longer face direct fees to export to Canada, other tariffs mean it will still cost more to operate Maine’s fisheries.
“One of the tariffs is on steel and aluminum,” King said. “Guess what lobster traps are made of.”
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Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said in a statement Thursday that she was appreciative that Canada removed seafood from its list of retaliatory tariffs. The tariffs, she said, “would have caused tremendous harm to Maine’s lobstermen, disrupting one of their most important markets during the fall fishing season.”
Collins, who is running for a sixth term in the Senate this year, has been publicly critical of her party’s leader over the Canadian trade war, and on Thursday urged the Trump administration to return to the negotiating table.
“Canada is not China,” Collins said in the statement. “Our economies are inextricably linked, especially in the border regions. Continuing with these tariffs will harm Maine families, small businesses, municipalities, manufacturers and farmers.”
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Carney had pulled out of tariff negotiations late last week over last-minute American demands for a veto on Canadian trade deals, restrictions on heavy-duty trucks and weakened protections for Canada’s use of the French language. Trump then imposed the new tariffs Saturday, citing a never-before-used provision of a Great Depression-era trade law.
The heightened trade war between the longtime allies has the potential to affect a wide range of Maine industries, from forest products to agriculture to electricity prices.
Annually, Maine exports $1.3 billion worth of goods to Canada. That’s about 41% of the state’s exports, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
About 80% of Maine’s $378 million in seafood exports went to its northern neighbor in 2025.
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Tagged: Canada, cost of living, fisheries, lobster industry, Maine Lobstermen's Association, tariffs
Ethan reports on cost of living for the Portland Press Herald. Before he joined in mid-2026, he covered local news in Augusta and surrounding areas and ran a weekly newsletter for the Kennebec Journal. More by Ethan Horton
