Canada swiftly changed course and decided to exclude U.S. seafood from its list of planned tariffs in response to the latest U.S. measures.
This decision came days after the federal government announced 25 per cent tariffs on all seafood imports from the U.S.—up from essentially zero.
Seafood is a geographically concentrated industry. The top U.S. state exporters to Canada are Washington, Maine, Massachusetts, Florida, Alaska and California (in that order) and are the same states year after year.
This consistency and concentration means that seafood tariffs would have shown up specifically where it would be visible and quick—which would likely have alerted affected U.S. businesses and, potentially, could have helped the two countries resume negotiations.
Another notable wrinkle: the U.S. specifically excluded Canadian seafood from its most recent tariff plan.
While Canada initially added U.S. seafood to its list of tariffs due to take effect Sept. 8, the pullback reveals a critical calculation that Canadian businesses would also get hurt.
The bigger story: supply chains
Go a little deeper and you’ll see that supply chains are the core issue at play here.
The seafood industry, like many others, is extensively integrated across national borders. Catching, processing, distribution, and retail involve businesses in Canada and the U.S. before the product reaches plates in either country.
A significant tariff—and the subsequent pullback—illustrates that North American supply chains are so vulnerable and exposed that Canadian businesses would get hurt from such tariffs.
Even a supposedly targeted tariff wouldn’t stay contained to one country. Instead, the effects would ripple through processing plants, transportation networks, restaurants, food service and tourism in both countries.
Disruption to decades of built-in cross-border integration is also happening with autos, manufacturing, dairy, cosmetics, steel and aluminum.
Among select products, U.S. steel and iron exports to Canada totalled US $8.9 billion in 2025, followed $2.8 billion in aluminum and $1.3B in seafood. Dairy products, which garnered more media attention recently, totalled $1.2 billion—narrowly behind seafood.
Seafood rarely makes the headlines the way other industries do, but the underlying story is identical: businesses built their operations assuming North American integration was a given.
It is not anymore.
The takeaway
Businesses can account for tariffs, no matter the percentage. The issue is the uncertainty, as was evident by Canada’s announcement of seafood tariffs and its decision to pull back 48 hours later.
That volatility makes it difficult to commit to a multi-year investment decision on sourcing, supply chains, hiring and more—especially since the trade landscape could change again by next quarter.
