Russia has not bought any US seafood since 2014, but the US is still buying theirs.
The documents for the House Fisheries Committee meeting scheduled for 11:00 am tomorrow, January 25, 2022, have been uploaded to BASIS and can be found at the link below:
House Fisheries Committee Meeting Documents 1.25.22
Tomorrow Chair Geron Tarr plans to hear an introduction and take invited and public testimony for both SJR 16 END RUSSIA EMBARGO ON U.S. SEAFOOD and SJR 17 INCREASE SEAFOOD EXPORTS.
SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 16
IN THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA
THIRTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE – FIRST SESSION
BY THE SENATE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON WORLD TRADE
Introduced: 5/11/21
Referred: Resources
A RESOLUTION
1 Calling on President Biden to immediately seek and secure an end to the embargo
2 imposed by Russia on seafood imports from abroad so that Alaska seafood producers’
3 access to the Russian domestic seafood market is fully restored.
4 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:
5 WHEREAS Russia instituted an embargo on certain seafood imports in 2014,
6 affecting almost all United States seafood products, including almost all categories of fish,
7 crustaceans, mollusks, and other aquatic invertebrates; and
8 WHEREAS, before the embargo, Russia was an important export market for Alaska
9 seafood, with $61,300,000 in purchases from Alaska seafood producers in 2013, the year
10 preceding the embargo; and
11 WHEREAS the embargo has deprived Alaska seafood producers of a market for
12 certain products, including Alaska salmon roe, that have few alternative markets; and
13 WHEREAS the lack of access to the Russian domestic seafood market reduces the
14 value of Alaska seafood products and imposes significant and ongoing costs on the state’s
15 seafood economy; and
1 WHEREAS Russian seafood products compete directly with Alaska seafood products
2 in the United States domestic market and the global market and yet are not subject to an
3 analogous import limitation by the United States or another county; and
4 WHEREAS Russian seafood imports continue to enter the United States almost
5 entirely duty-free and have increased by 173 percent since 2013, the year preceding the
6 embargo;
7 BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature calls on President Joseph R.
8 Biden to immediately seek and secure an end to the embargo imposed by Russia on United
9 States seafood so that
Alaska seafood producers’ access to Russia’s domestic seafood market
10 is fully restored.
11 COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Joseph R. Biden, President
12 of the United States; and the Honorable Lisa Murkowski and the Honorable Dan Sullivan,
13 U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska
14 delegation in Congress.
