PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A customs dispute at the U.S.-Canada border in Maine is threatening America’s supply of Alaska pollock used for popular products such as fish sticks and fast-food sandwiches.
The pollock has a complicated supply chain. After being caught offshore Alaska, the fish are transported by ship to New Brunswick, Canada, near the border with Maine. Then they’re loaded onto rail cars for a brief trip down 100 feet of track in Canada, before being put on trucks and crossing the border into the U.S. for processing.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection alleges the shippers are violating the federal Jones Act, which requires that goods shipped between U.S. ports be transported on U.S.-owned ships with U.S. crews.
The 100-foot section of rail line -- built solely for this one purpose and opened in 2012 -- is designed to take advantage of a provision in the law that allows non-U.S. ships to move goods between U.S. ports if the cargo makes a railroad trip through Canada somewhere along the delivery route.
The Customs agency decided the 100 feet of rail to nowhere doesn’t qualify, and has assessed more than $350 million in penalties against the shippers. Two of the shipping companies have sued in federal court to stop the enforcement, which they characterized as heavy-handed, unexpected and unfair.
The dispute left 26 million pounds of fish in cold storage in Canada until a federal court judge issued an injunction on Sunday to let the seafood move into the U.S.
Members of the industry said they’re concerned about permanent disruption to the seafood supply chain if the disagreement continues.
“We’re talking about feeding and employing Americans, right now,” said Gavin Gibbons, spokesman for the Virginia-based National Fisheries Institute.
U.S. Customs filed court papers in early October that said the agency agrees with the shippers in desiring a quick resolution to the case. However, the schedule it has proposed in court for resolving the case would still take several weeks.
The agency declined to comment on the case because of the ongoing litigation, a government spokesperson said. The shipping companies behind the lawsuit, Kloosterboer International Forwarding and Alaska Reefer Management, which have offices in Seattle, also both declined to comment.
The dispute is happening at a bad time for the seafood industry because the business is making preparations for the busy Lenten season, said Michael Alexander, president of King and Price, a Georgia company that makes seafood for the food service industry. Many Christians substitute fish for red meat during Lent, and pollock is in higher demand during that part of the year.
In addition, most fast-food chains’ fish offering, including the McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish, is made from pollock.
“If we can’t get the pollock soon, then we will run out of time and other raw material; causing production lines – and people — to sit idle,” Alexander said.
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, has called on President Joe Biden, a Democrat, to help resolve the dispute. Baker said in a mid-September letter to the president that his state, home to some of the nation’s largest seafood processors, stands to be hurt economically if the fish doesn’t start moving again.
That could cost jobs in an industry still reeling from the Coronavirus pandemic, he wrote.
“Processors in Massachusetts will exhaust their remaining inventory, halt production, and be forced to lay off workers,” Baker’s letter said.
The trucks carrying the fish enter the U.S. in Calais, a small Maine city located about 220 miles northeast of Portland. The city is dependent on cross-border economic activity, and that has suffered during the Coronavirus pandemic, said Michael Ellis, the city manager.
“We’re all hoping for the border to reopen because it’s a big part of our economy,” Ellis said.
Reader Comments(0)