Reducing tariffs on imported goods is meant to remove trade barriers, but it doesn’t seem to be helping the seafood industry, which has experienced the same — if not more — import rejections and notifications at borders, according to research guided by an agricultural economist at Penn State.
The study, which explored tariff and nontariff barriers in the seafood trade, also documented the reasons for products held at the borders, including food safety concerns, noted Linlin Fan, assistant professor of agricultural economics in the College of Agricultural Sciences.
“As importing countries from the European Union to the U.S. honor trade agreements to lower tariff rates, traditional tariff barriers may be replaced with nontariff barriers,” she said. “While there are legitimate reasons to hold products at a border, such as food safety, we also see evidence that some rejections appear to protect domestic industries against foreign competition…