The
White House
June 24, 2020
Memorandum on Protecting the
United States Lobster Industry
Memorandum for the
Secretary of Agriculture, the
Secretary of Commerce, and the United
States Trade Representative
Subject: Protecting
the United States Lobster Industry
By the authority vested
in me as President by the Constitution
and the laws of the United States of
America, it is hereby ordered as
follows:
Section 1. Policy. On
May 22, 2018, the United States Trade
Representative (Trade Representative)
concluded an investigation under section
301 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended
(19 U.S.C. 2411), finding that China had
engaged in multiple unreasonable and
discriminatory trade practices that had
harmed American intellectual property
rights, innovation, and technology
development. In response to China's
unfair and unreasonable conduct, the
United States imposed tariffs on several
categories of Chinese products.
Rather than reform its
practices, China responded to the Trade
Representative's findings with unjust
retaliatory tariffs designed
strategically to inflict financial harm
on America's farmers, fishermen, and
workers in other industries.
My Administration has
forcefully addressed China's unfair
assault on American producers. Among
other measures, I directed the Secretary
of Agriculture to deliver a
comprehensive trade aid package to
American farmers. He did so, providing
more than 14 billion dollars in direct
payments to American farmers under the
authority of the Commodity Credit
Corporation (CCC) Charter Act.
China's retaliatory
assault on the American lobster industry
was particularly aggressive. On July 6,
2018, China imposed retaliatory 25
percent tariffs on American lobster. On
September 1, 2019, China raised those
retaliatory tariffs to 35 percent. On
February 14, 2020, China reduced its
punitive lobster tariffs to 30 percent.
When those retaliatory tariffs are added
to China's prevailing Most Favored
Nation tariffs of 5 percent and 7
percent, depending on the species of
lobster, American lobsters currently
face tariffs of either 35 percent or 37
percent.
On January 15, 2020, I
signed the landmark Economic and Trade
Agreement Between the Government of the
United States of America and the
Government of the People's Republic of
China ("Phase One Agreement"). The Phase
One Agreement requires important
structural reforms from China related to
issues such as intellectual property
theft, forced technology transfer, and
exchange rate manipulation. As part of
the Phase One Agreement, China made
binding commitments to purchase large
quantities of United States manufactured
goods, agricultural products, and
services. Seafood, including lobsters,
is one of the agricultural products
China agreed to purchase. To help
fulfill this purchase commitment, China
has made available exclusions from its
retaliatory tariffs for imports of
United States lobster.
At this time, it remains
unclear to what extent China's
exclusions from its retaliatory tariffs
will result in increased exports of
United States lobster. Such exports are
particularly important because exports
to the European Union, another large
market for United States lobster, appear
to have been significantly and
negatively affected by the recent
implementation of the Comprehensive
Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA)
between Canada and the European Union.
The lobster industry is a crown jewel of
America's seafood industry. From 2015 to
2018, American lobster was the most
valuable single seafood species
harvested in the United States, with
Maine accounting for approximately 80
percent of that value each year. It is,
therefore, the policy of my
Administration to mitigate the effects
of unfair retaliatory trade practices on
this important industry.
Sec. 2. Protecting the
United States Lobster Industry. (a)
The Secretary of Agriculture shall,
within 60 days of the date of this
memorandum, consider taking appropriate
action, to the extent permitted by
applicable law, to provide assistance to
fishermen and producers in the United
States lobster industry that continue to
be harmed by China's retaliatory
tariffs.
(b) The Secretary of
Agriculture shall also consider
including, to the extent permitted by
applicable law, the United States
lobster industry and other segments of
the United States seafood industry in
any future assistance provided to
mitigate the effects of China's
retaliatory trade practices.
Sec. 3. Reciprocal
Tariffs. (a)
The Trade Representative shall,
beginning August 15, 2020, submit a
monthly report to the President
detailing:
(i) China's progress in
meeting its purchase commitments under
the Phase One Agreement with respect to
United States seafood; and
(ii) the value of monthly
Maine and other United States lobster
exports to China, beginning with China's
imports for June 2020.
(b) In the event that the
Trade Representative determines that
China is not meeting its purchase
commitments under the Phase One
Agreement with respect to seafood, the
Trade Representative shall consider, to
the extent permitted by law, taking all
appropriate action to impose reciprocal
retaliatory tariffs on seafood exports
from China.
Sec. 4. Addressing
Negative Effects of the CETA between
Canada and the European Union on the
United States Lobster Industry. Pursuant
to section 1332(g) of title 19, United
States Code, and section 5-301 of
Executive Order 12661 of December 27,
1988 (Implementing the Omnibus Trade and
Competitiveness Act of 1988 and Related
International Trade Matters), the Trade
Representative shall request that the
United States International Trade
Commission (USITC) provide a report that
details any negative effects of the CETA
on the United States lobster industry.
The Trade Representative shall submit
such report to the President. The Trade
Representative, in consultation with the
Secretary of Agriculture and Secretary
of Commerce, shall recommend appropriate
actions that may be taken to minimize or
eliminate any negative effects
identified in the USITC report.
Sec. 5. General
Provisions. (a)
Nothing in this memorandum shall be
construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted
by law to an executive department or
agency, or the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the
Director of the Office of Management and
Budget relating to budgetary,
administrative, or legislative
proposals.
(b) This memorandum shall
be implemented consistent with
applicable law and subject to the
availability of appropriations.
(c) This memorandum is
not intended to, and does not, create
any right or benefit, substantive or
procedural, enforceable at law or in
equity by any party against the United
States, its departments, agencies, or
entities, its officers, employees, or
agents, or any other person.
DONALD J. TRUMP
The
White House
June 5, 2020
Remarks By President Trump In A
Roundtable On Supporting America’s
Commercial Fishermen
Army
Air National Guard Hangar A
Bangor, Maine
2:15 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Okay. And I
heard there was some controversy with
respect to the current governor. She
never asked me a question. By the
way, you have everything right on
tape. She assured I came here,
because when she said I shouldn’t come, I
said, “Now I know I’m coming.”
(Laughter.) I’m like Paul.
MR. LEPAGE: You should see the crowd
outside, the crowd that’s gathered outside
because you were coming. It’s
unbelievable.
THE PRESIDENT: I hear there’s a big
crowd out there, huh? That’s
great. That’s great.
And you folks are going to tell me about the
EU — okay? — with respect to their tariffs,
because they like terrifying things.
So you’re going tell me about that — okay? —
with regard to lobster.
MR. LEPAGE: I would like to say one
thing (inaudible), if you’d like.
THE PRESIDENT: You’ll speak.
Yeah, do you want to speak in front of the
press?
MR. LEPAGE: Yeah. A lot of the
Maine companies — lobster companies — have
been forced to open up companies in Canada
to send their lobster to the Far East and to
Europe because we don’t have an agreement
with the EU. And, of course, China
levied a 40 — 40 percent tax on Maine
lobster, U.S. lobster. So what they’re
—
THE PRESIDENT: So easy to handle.
MR. LEPAGE: Yeah.
THE PRESIDENT: All you have to do is
put a tariff on them and you’ll have it done
in about two minutes, right? And we’ll
talk about that. So the EU, in other
words, charges a tariff —
MR. LEPAGE: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: — and, therefore, the
Maine lobster people —
MR. LEPAGE: Have to pay 20 percent.
THE PRESIDENT: Have to pay 20 percent,
is it?
MR. LEPAGE: Right.
THE PRESIDENT: Or 40 percent?
MR. LEPAGE: Yes, it’s 20 percent.
THE PRESIDENT: So they have a tariff,
so it no longer makes it competitive.
MR. LEPAGE: And if it comes from
Canada, Canada has an agreement with the EU,
and there’s no tariffs.
And in addition to that, the Canadian dollar
is 30 percent weaker than the American
dollar, and therefore they’re making a
killing.
THE PRESIDENT: I got it. That’s
an easy one to handle. That’s, like,
easy.
MR. LEPAGE: Good.
THE PRESIDENT: Hi, everybody.
We’ll talk about that. Okay?
So I want to thank you all very much.
We just had a big press conference at the
White House. You probably saw in the
Rose Garden — the beautiful rose garden that
was about 100 degrees. It’s
okay. And the U.S. economy added two
and a half million jobs. It was
supposed to lose 9 million. They were
slightly off. So instead of losing 9
million — in fact, when they read it, they
thought there was a typo. When the
numbers came out this morning at 8:30, they
read it, and they thought that was a typo.
Probably the greatest month we’ve ever
had. I guess, if you look at the
charts, we were — we gave the charts to the
fake-news media; they have them. And
probably the greatest month we ever had in
terms of that. And we haven’t even
started yet because New York is closed,
which is starting to open. And
California is essentially closed but
starting to open.
So this is the largest monthly jobs increase
in American history, and that’s more than
double the previous record, which was a long
time ago. Economists forecast that the
unemployment rate would rise to over 19
percent. Instead, it fell to 13
percent. A slight difference.
Right, Paul? Former governor of this
great state, Paul LePage. Been a
friend of mine for a long time.
We added 1.2 million leisure and hospitality
jobs; 464,000 construction jobs; 424,000
education and health service jobs; 368,000
retail jobs; and 225,000 manufacturing
jobs. You remember, Paul, under the
previous administration, they said there’d
be no manufacturing.
MR. LEPAGE: Yeah. We lost.
THE PRESIDENT: And they didn’t call
that one too well either, did they?
They didn’t call too many things too well.
The report showed that nearly 80 percent of
the unemployed workers were in a temporary
layoff. That’s a great thing.
That means they all expect to go back to
work, indicating that they could quickly
return. Seventy-three percent of small
businesses are now open — how about that? —
up from fifty-two percent last month.
And the S&P 500 just had the best 50
days in the history of the stock
market. Pretty amazing. And
we’ve just started. We’re going to
have the greatest year.
Next year will be the greatest year, I think
economically speaking, in history for our
country. Only one thing can stop it:
somebody like Sleepy Joe Biden. Wants
to raise taxes, open borders. They
want to open the borders. Can you
imagine opening borders right now?
Tijuana is the most heavily infected place
anywhere in the world, as far as the plague
is concerned. You know the plague; it
came in from China, unfortunately.
Most heavily infected — or one of the most
heavily infected — right along the
border. But we built a wall. We
have up to 200 miles now. More than
200 miles of wall.
By the end of the year, we’ll have 400 plus,
and we’ll have it finished very
shortly. Fully financed, everything
done, despite totally opp- — we were totally
opposed by the other party, as you know.
But they want open borders; that would be
bad. But they want to raise taxes, and
that will — that would be a disaster.
So I think we’re going to have a great
victory, and we’re going to take care of law
enforcement, because law enforcement —
they’re saying “defund the police.”
“Defund.” Think of it. When I
saw it, I said, “What are you talking
about?” “We don’t want to have any
police,” they say. You don’t want
police?
First, they didn’t want ICE. They do
want sanctuary cities, which are a
disaster. But they say they’re going
to defund the police. In other words,
they’re not going to pay police. They
don’t want to have any police — the real
ones.
And Biden has bought into it, but he doesn’t
know what’s going on. So, you know, he
just doesn’t know. But the people
around him know what’s going on. And
they want to defund the police. They
don’t want to have police.
So I want to thank you very much for being
here. I’m thrilled to be with my
friends from the great state of Maine, with
leaders from the fishing, crabbing, and
lobster industries. Very important
industries. And you never have been
treated properly, or at least for the last
long period of time.
We’re also joined by Secretary of the
Interior David Bernhardt and a very good
friend of mine, former governor Paul
LePage. Paul, thank you very much for
being here. You did a great job
running this state — I can tell you that.
As we work to fully reopen and revitalize
our nation’s economy, I’m doing everything
in my power to support American workers,
including those in Maine’s amazing seafood
industry. It’s a big industry, but a
lot of people have not been taking care of
this industry. We have, and that’s why
we’re here. We’re going to take care
of it even better, starting today.
We were all very excited to see the
blockbuster 2.5 million jobs added last
month, far exceeding any expectations, not
even the wildest expectations. Thought
it was supposed to be down 9 million, and it
was up two and a half million. I would
say their estimators didn’t do too good a
job.
Under the last administration, commercial
fishermen and Maine lobstermen were suddenly
informed that nearly 5,000 square miles of
ocean off the coast of New England would be
closed to commercial fishing, without
justification. Is that right?
Five hundred — no, you got to be
kidding. Is that right?
MR. WILLIAMS: That’s correct, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: So they just closed
it? They said you can’t fish?
But let me guess: Other countries do,
right? Huh? They do.
This action was deeply unfair to Maine
lobstermen. Threatened to cripple
family businesses. It cost America’s
fishermen millions of dollars.
So they closed 5,000 square miles of ocean
off your coast, right? That’s amazing,
Paul. How did you let that — how did
they let that happen?
MR. LEPAGE: Obama just used —
THE PRESIDENT: That was President
Obama. Thank you —
MR. LEPAGE: President Obama.
THE PRESIDENT: Through the pen.
Was that done in the form of an executive —
MR. LEPAGE: In the very last few days
of this administration.
THE PRESIDENT: Is that — that’s this?
SECRETARY BERNHARDT: You’re going to
fix that.
THE PRESIDENT: We’re opening it,
right?
SECRETARY BERNHARDT: You’re fixing it.
THE PRESIDENT: So we’re opening it
today. We’re undoing his executive
order. Why — why wouldn’t that be —
it’s ridiculous.
What reason did he have for closing 5,000
miles? That’s a lot of miles.
Five thousand square miles is a lot.
He didn’t have a reason, in my opinion.
All right. So we’re opening it
up. Today, I’m signing a proclamation
to reverse that injustice, to reverse that
order from the previous administration, and
we are reopening the Northeast Canyons and
the Seamounts Marine region to commercial
fishing. Is that okay? Is that
what you want? Right?
(Applause.)
That’s an easy one. For me, I can’t
even believe they can do a thing like
that. That’s a terrible thing.
That’s a terrible thing.
So America is blessed with some of the
richest ocean resources anywhere in the
world — except when they close it up — and
yet we have a 16.6-billion-dollar seafood
trade deficit and import over 85 percent of
the fish we consume. No wonder.
You have 5,000 miles that’s closed up.
Who would think that we — so we import 85
percent of the fish from other countries
that are your competitors, and we have the
best fishing areas in the world, I would
think. Right? Is that among the
best fishing areas anywhere in the
world? How does it compare to other
locations in the world?
MR. ODLIN: Georges Bank is a very rich
fishing area in the world.
THE PRESIDENT: And for lobster, the
best. Right?
MS. TOOLEY: Yes.
MR. ODLIN: The best in the Gulf of
Maine.
THE PRESIDENT: For lobster.
MS. TOOLEY: And Atlantic scallops.
THE PRESIDENT: And scallops. I
like scallops. Good. We’ll have
plenty of scallops to eat.
This is why I’ve taken decisive
action. And we’re going to send our
fishermen out there. You’re going to
go fishing in that area now that you haven’t
seen for a long time. Lobstermen and
seafood producers, I want to just
congratulate you.
Last month, I signed an executive order to
begin an accelerated review and reduction of
all unnecessary regulations on the seafood
industry. So who’s doing that,
David? Who’s working on it?
SECRETARY BERNHARDT: The Department of
Commerce.
THE PRESIDENT: Okay. You’ll make
sure that gets done, quickly.
SECRETARY BERNHARDT: Absolutely.
THE PRESIDENT: Okay? This guy,
when I give him something, it gets
done. Between him and Peter, we have
the right people. So, Peter, you’ll
make sure that — you and David.
MR. NAVARRO: This is a great thing for
the state of Maine. These two
executive orders, together, is going to
bring back commercial fishing in a big
way. Sir, that is some of the most
fertile fishing grounds in the entire world
that’s been shut off.
THE PRESIDENT: And we’ve gone through
all of the machinations, all of the
work. So we can sign this now.
It takes a while to get it done, but we’re
getting it done. Not easy.
Because they did it in such a way that it’s
not easy.
I ordered the formation of a trade task
force that will identify opportunities to
open foreign markets to our seafood
exports. We’re going to talk about the
European Union, who constantly take
advantage of us on trade. Nobody knows
that.
And I’m further cracking down on illegal
harvested and imported seafood. That’s
a big deal, too, right? What does that
mean, “illegally harvested”? Who wants
to answer that question? Go ahead.
MR. ODLIN: It’s fish — they call it E-
— EI fish. You know, illegally
harvested fish that some countries don’t
enforce fisheries conservation rules.
In our country, we do. So if a country
is off their coast, and they don’t have to
go by —
THE PRESIDENT: So they don’t have the
thing, so they have —
MR. ODLIN: They don’t have any
rules. They can catch fish from
(inaudible).
THE PRESIDENT: So, our conservation
rules — are they overly tough or are they
ridiculous? Because other countries
don’t have any conservation rules,
right? Most other countries.
MR. ODLIN: We — we have —
THE PRESIDENT: Are our rules fair and
good, or are they not?
MR. ODLIN: We have a lot of rules in
place that are preventing us from harvesting
sustainably some of the resources out
here. The fact that — I’m in the
groundfish industry. The resources in
— off New England are at a record high.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, can you talk —
can you talk a little bit —
MR. ODLIN: The resources off New
England are at record levels. Never
been recorded in history that they’re so
high. But we’re under-
THE PRESIDENT: Meaning, the —
MR. ODLIN: — we’re underfishing.
THE PRESIDENT: Because you’re
underfishing.
MR. ODLIN: We’re underfishing them —
THE PRESIDENT: Is that because of
regulations?
MR. ODLIN: Because of antiquated
regulations that you can never get rid of
something that’s in place.
THE PRESIDENT: So, are we then looking
at those regulations, Peter, or not?
MR. NAVARRO: Yes, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Because let’s do it.
MR. NAVARRO: Yes, sir.
MR. ODLIN: That’s — that’s what you’ve
been (inaudible).
THE PRESIDENT: I mean, we came up here
for a different reason, but let’s look at
those.
So, in other words, you have more product
than we’ve ever had before because you’re
not allowed to use it. You’re not
allowed to fish, basically.
MR. LEPAGE: You’re not allowed to
fish. And some of the problem — and
when I was the governor, I encou- — you
know, I encountered it. If you go to
Commerce, and Commerce sends you to NOAA,
and there’s a lot of bureaucrats in NOAA
that are — really, really put on some
hurtful penalties and regulations on the
American — on the fishermen.
THE PRESIDENT: So, they were so
burdensome that you can’t fish.
MR. LEPAGE: Correct.
THE PRESIDENT: So now what’s
happening, it’s being taken over —
MR. LEPAGE: Or you can’t afford to
fish.
THE PRESIDENT: You can’t what?
MR. LEPAGE: They’re so burdensome that
you can’t afford to fish. They make it
so that if you —
THE PRESIDENT: Probably both: You
can’t fish, and you can’t afford to fish.
MR. LEPAGE: And you can’t afford to
fish.
THE PRESIDENT: So let’s open it up,
Paul.
MR. LEPAGE: Yep.
THE PRESIDENT: Nobody better than Paul
LePage to get this going, in my
opinion. So can I ask you to work on,
with —
MR. LEPAGE: Absolutely.
THE PRESIDENT: — my two great guys,
Peter and David?
MR. LEPAGE: I would — I would be more
than happy.
THE PRESIDENT: And let’s open it up,
okay? And we want conservation.
I’m a believer in conservation. But
they’ve gone crazy.
And then, other countries, they don’t have
the same, so you have a much more expensive
product. You have a better product,
but you’re not allowed to even get it, in
many cases. Right?
MR. LEPAGE: That’s correct.
THE PRESIDENT: It’s amazing.
So I ordered the formation of a task
force. And today I did something else:
I put Paul LePage in charge of trying to
figure that one out, which you already have
figured out, I suspect. You’ve been
living with that a long time. And
you’ve been unable to get previous
administrations to do anything about this,
right?
MR. LEPAGE: That is correct. And
it was particularly bad under the Obama
administration. I spent six years at —
THE PRESIDENT: Well, they just kept —
they kept piling it on, huh?
MR. LEPAGE: They just kept piling it
on and delay, delay, delay.
THE PRESIDENT: And why did they do
that? Just because they thought —
environmentally or something, right?
Not really. Politically, they did it.
MR. LEPAGE: It was a — it was a little
bit of a political stunt because — unlike
yourself and I, we’re friends — Obama and I
were not friends. And it was very
difficult to get to talk to him.
THE PRESIDENT: Maybe he was also nice
to other countries. He might have also
been nice to other countries, right?
Like Canada. Right? He might
have been nice to other countries, like
Canada.
MR. LEPAGE: Yes, he was.
THE PRESIDENT: So I ordered the
formation of a task force — thank you, Paul
— that will identify opportunities, open
foreign markets to our seafood
exports. I’m further cracking down on
illegal harvested and imported
seafood. That’s what your problem was,
right? So we’re cracking down on it.
I recently signed into law $300 million to
help our nation’s fisheries. Maine
will receive $20 million. And you’re
going to get more than that now, as we start
breaking this crazy thing up.
You know, I always think of this as a great
fishing state, but you’re so restricted, it
really stops you from being a great fishing
state.
I’m going to ask David Bernhardt, though,
and Peter Navarro to really get involved and
get this done quick. This is
ridiculous. Okay? Can I do that?
MR. NAVARRO: Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: So I want every
American who works out of the ocean and
works in the ocean, and fishes for all of
the different things and the treasures, to
let you know that we’re behind you 100
percent. You do an incredible job.
And we want conservation. We want good
environmental practices — very
important. But we also want something
that’s fair to you. They’ve taken your
livings away. They’ve — I’ve been
hearing about this for a long time, in Maine
and other places up here. Let it
extend to other places that are also
affected.
Canada is given a tremendous advantage over
the United States because of the practices
of the previous administration and probably
others. So we’re not going to let that
happen. As an example, I heard that
Canada doesn’t have to pay a tariff going
into Europe.
MR. LEPAGE: That’s correct.
THE PRESIDENT: But you do.
MR. LEPAGE: And we do.
THE PRESIDENT: Okay? So —
MR. LEPAGE: And then —
THE PRESIDENT: — if that goes on, then
we’re going to do something that’s going to
make — that’s going to make that look like
small time.
MR. LEPAGE: Yeah. And last year,
we were sending — or two years ago, we were
sending a lot of product to China and then
China put a tariff on us for 40 percent
because of some of the trade issues between
the two countries.
THE PRESIDENT: Right. And what
happened to the tariff? Is it on now?
MR. LEPAGE: It’s not gone down.
I haven’t checked lately, but you’re still
paying the tariffs, right? The lobster
is still going to Canada. And from
Canada, they go over free. But it’s
just an added expense to the Maine
lobsterman, who also has a 30 percent
disadvantage on —
THE PRESIDENT: So you’re saying China
charges a 40 percent tariff.
MR. LEPAGE: Tariffs.
THE PRESIDENT: And how big is the
tariff that the European Union charges?
MR. LEPAGE: Twenty. Is it — it’s
20 or 22.
THE PRESIDENT: Okay. And this
country, because of stupidity, for years,
hasn’t charged them anything.
MR. LEPAGE: And the funniest part of
this whole issue is the Canadian lobster
we’re talking of and the Maine lobster come
out of the same water.
THE PRESIDENT: Are they the same
lobster, would you say, basically?
MR. LEPAGE: Yes. They’re —
THE PRESIDENT: Would you say they’re
equivalent, as lobster?
MR. LEPAGE: They’re equivalent.
They’re from the same —
THE PRESIDENT: Is there a difference
in size or —
MR. LEPAGE: They’re the Gulf of Maine.
THE PRESIDENT: — type? Any
difference?
MR. LEPAGE: They’re coming out of the
Gulf of Maine.
THE PRESIDENT: It’s the same
lobster. So you’re set up with a 20
percent tax that they don’t have. So
you — so they have a very good thing.
That’s European Union, right?
MR. LEPAGE: Yep.
THE PRESIDENT: The European Union has
ripped this country off so much, it’s
unbelievable.
MR. LEPAGE: And I’ll tell you —
THE PRESIDENT: And it’s so easy to
solve. I’m going to call them.
David, you’re going to come in, write a
letter, and if they don’t change, we’re
going to put a tariff on their cars until
they change. And they’ll change right
away, okay?
It’s unbelievable how badly — you know,
people hear about the European Union — it
sounds nice. They’ve been almost as
bad, over the years, as China, in terms of
trade. But nobody talks about
it. There’s a perfect case: Maine
lobster. You understand what I’m
saying?
SECRETARY BERNHARDT: Absolutely.
THE PRESIDENT: We’re going to charge
an equivalent-plus tariff to them if they
don’t drop their tariff on your lobster and
seafood, okay? And we can do that.
Peter, do you agree with that?
MR. NAVARRO: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Do you like it?
MR. NAVARRO: We need to strike back.
THE PRESIDENT: Let me put you in
charge of that one.
MR. NAVARRO: We need to strike back.
THE PRESIDENT: That’s a natural for
you — excuse me.
MR. NAVARRO: Yes, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: That’s a natural for
you. European Union charges us a
tariff; they don’t charge Canada a
tariff. This is for the press: So
Canada doesn’t pay a tariff for the same
exact lobster in the same waters, but we pay
a tariff. If European Union doesn’t
drop that tariff immediately, we’re going to
put a tariff on their cars, which will be
equivalent — coming in — come in for
nothing, which is ridiculous.
Okay? Do you understand? It’s
going to be the equivalent-plus.
MR. NAVARRO: Yes, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: It’s going to be the
equivalent-plus. Watch how fast that
tariff comes off. All right?
Watch how fast. It should be plus,
plus, plus. Okay? I’m going to
put Peter Navarro in charge of it.
That’s perfect for him. I’ll take that
one off your plate, okay?
PARTICIPANT: Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: All right. Peter
Navarro, you’re in charge of it, all
right? Thank you.
We — this country has been treated so badly
on trade for so many years. We have
such bad agreements. We’re breaking so
many of them up. It’s been treated so
badly, it’s hard to believe.
MR. LEPAGE: You know, Canada — in some
respects, Canada has been our worst enemy in
the — in the produce industry. We
cannot send — we cannot send —
THE PRESIDENT: Canada has been very
tough. Canada charged, in Wisconsin —
before I got up and changed it — 287 percent
tariffs on dairy products.
MR. LEPAGE: Yeah.
THE PRESIDENT: So, think of it.
And they kept it at 287. They didn’t
want to make it 300 because they thought
somebody might find out. And until I
became President, nobody knew. I ended
it. But they were charging Wisconsin
and our farmers 287 percent tariffs to send
dairy products to Canada. So
therefore, you didn’t sell and you couldn’t
compete.
MR. LEPAGE: You couldn’t compete.
THE PRESIDENT: And our people didn’t
charge them anything.
MR. LEPAGE: That’s correct.
THE PRESIDENT: Canada has been very
tough. Very tough. You know
why? Because they got away with
it. That’s all. Because people
sitting here didn’t know what the hell they
were doing.
Okay. But the deal has worked.
You know, the new deal is a good deal.
It’s got rid of all that stuff. But we
didn’t talk about lobster. But Peter
Navarro is going to be the lobster king now,
okay? (Laughter.) All right,
Peter?
MR. NARVARRO: Yes, sir. We’ll
get after it.
THE PRESIDENT: Hey, look, you can do
it. Let’s see what you can do.
MR. NARVARRO: Dear to my heart.
THE PRESIDENT: Let’s see what you can
do.
MR. NARVARRO: This state right here,
Maine, is dear to my heart. I spent a
lot of my time here over the years.
MR. LEPAGE: There’s another vegetable
that most people don’t speak of and we have
— can’t bring to Canada. And we’re one
of the — we have a company in Maine that is
one of the major growers of broccoli in the
country.
THE PRESIDENT: Broccoli. I —
MR. LEPAGE: In the summer, they’re in
Maine. In the winter, they’re in — in
Florida. But what has happened in the
last few years is the Canadians bring their
broccoli into market, they have a 30 percent
advantage on the exchange rate, and so we
can’t sell our broccoli. And we can’t
send it to Canada (inaudible).
THE PRESIDENT: Well, that’s our big
thing with the dollar.
MR. NAVARRO: That’s the overvalued
dollar.
THE PRESIDENT: That’s what you and I
talk about. The dollar. The
dollar that everybody says doesn’t matter.
MR. NAVARRO: Yeah.
(Laughs.) I’d love to do that one too,
sir. Make me the dollar king,
too. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: You want to handle
broccoli in the same way?
MR. NARVARRO: What’s that?
THE PRESIDENT: Is it broccoli
primarily, that? That and the lobster
— or seafood, itself?
MR. LEPAGE: There are a couple
others. There’s broccoli,
blueberries. Blueberries, Maine was
the — used to grow 90 percent of the wild
blueberries in the world.
THE PRESIDENT: So where is it done
now?
MR. LEPAGE: Canada. New
Brunswick and Quebec have got 300,000 acres
on. And so, now Maine’s blueberries
are selling below growing cost. Yeah.
THE PRESIDENT: And when you talked
about the Obama — to the Obama
administration about this, they did nothing,
right?
MR. LEPAGE: They did nothing. I
spent a lot of time at Commerce —
MR. NARVARRO: Let’s get on this.
THE PRESIDENT: The three — the three
things, plus the seafood. This man is
— he’s a believer. He knows exactly
what to do. I don’t have to tell him a
thing. And you guys will work on the
other stuff together, okay?
Any questions, by the way?
Questions? There shouldn’t be any
questions after that. You got more
than you would have ever thought.
MR. LEPAGE: I will just make one more
comment.
THE PRESIDENT: Amazing, right?
MR. LEPAGE: I will make one more
comment, and we need your help on. As
the — as the country is reopening — of
course, right now Maine is still tied up
pretty tight because we have a governor
that’s not reopening very fast. But as
we reopen —
THE PRESIDENT: Why isn’t your governor
— why isn’t your governor opening up your
state?
MR. LEPAGE: I don’t know. We
don’t know. We —
THE PRESIDENT: All the states are
being opened, they’re making a lot of
money. That’s why we had the good
numbers today. You have a governor
that doesn’t know what she’s doing, and
she’s like a dictator, you know?
MR. LEPAGE: Yes, she is.
THE PRESIDENT: Why isn’t she opening
up your state?
MR. LEPAGE: Well, one thing that she’s
doing is the $600 a week that — that the
people on unemployment are getting.
THE PRESIDENT: Right.
MR. LEPAGE: She is allowing them to
continue to collect when they’re called back
to work. And so people aren’t coming
back to work. And everybody in this
room will — knows of people —
THE PRESIDENT: So she’s taking
advantage of the system —
MR. LEPAGE: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: But she’s not letting
them come back anyway because you’re shut
down.
MR. LEPAGE: That’s right. But it
— the few that would — I know of three cases
last week by — an employer told me that
these three people were called back. I
reported them that I have work for them, but
they’re still getting the $600.
THE PRESIDENT: What would you say
about that, Peter?
MR. NAVARRO: The — look, this whole
problem in the bill, where we’re paying
people to stay home —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
MR. NAVARRO: It’s —
THE PRESIDENT: You know, it works in
some states.
MR. NAVARRO: — doing tremendous
damage.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
MR. NAVARRO: It’s doing tremendous
damage to our economy because it’s keeping
people home. And the longer people
stay home —
THE PRESIDENT: The Democrats wanted
this. Feather bedding, okay? But
the Democrats wanted it. We said it
wouldn’t work, and we were right.
MR. LEPAGE: And it works —
THE PRESIDENT: But honestly, it’s good
—
MR. LEPAGE: It works in Republican
states.
THE PRESIDENT: It does work in
Republican states. But the Democrats
wanted it. And we negotiated — but
it’s unnecessary.
MR. LEPAGE: Correct.
THE PRESIDENT: And it makes it overly
complex. But a place like this — you
know, we’re straightening — any further
legislation, we’re straightening it
out. And we just did PPP today.
So —
MR. LEPAGE: The legislation is — is
fine if everybody follows the rules.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.
MR. LEPAGE: But if a — if a governor
decides to —
THE PRESIDENT: But you see, she’s not
supposed to be doing that.
MR. LEPAGE: That’s correct.
THE PRESIDENT: So when she doesn’t do
that, it’s fine.
MR. LEPAGE: That is correct.
THE PRESIDENT: But the governor is
playing cute.
MR. LEPAGE: If you call someone back —
someone to work and they refuse to go to
work, you tell the state and the state will
take your unemployment away.
THE PRESIDENT: That’s right.
Exactly. So she’s not supposed to be
doing that.
MR. NAVARRO: That’s correct.
THE PRESIDENT: Let’s call her on that,
please. Call her, legally. Not
allowed to do that.
MR. LEPAGE: The people of Maine want
to work.
MR. NAVARRO: Yes, they do.
MR. LEPAGE: They do not want a
handout. They want to work.
THE PRESIDENT: When is she opening the
state, if ever?
MR. LEPAGE: I think there’s another
move in July. There’s going to be
another move in July. She started
opening up some of the restaurants that you
can have, you know, six —
THE PRESIDENT: Very small
MR. LEPAGE: — social distancing, and
50 percent.
THE PRESIDENT: And you don’t have a
very big problem up here. So why is
she doing this?
MR. LEPAGE: Well, what she’s afraid of
— or what she’s claiming is that, in the
summer — Maine only has 1.3 million people —
but we have 40-plus million visitors a year;
30-plus million in three months. And
she’s afraid that if she doesn’t quarantine
the entire state, that these folks are going
to bring the virus.
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah, the problem is,
though, those three months are your
Christmas. Right?
MR. LEPAGE: You got it. It’s our
season.
THE PRESIDENT: Tiffany likes — Tiffany
likes December; you like these three
months. So she’s going to get rid of
all of your wealth —
MR. LEPAGE: Exactly.
THE PRESIDENT: — and you’re never
going to recover that.
MR. LEPAGE: That is correct. And
so what I’ve advised her to do —
PARTICIPANT: Yeah, not good.
MR. LEPAGE: What I’ve tried her to do
is we — everybody — you can only get into
Maine two ways — well, three ways: the
Canadian border, the 95, or route 2.
THE PRESIDENT: Right.
MR. LEPAGE: So if you put somebody at
route 2, everybody that’s got a foreign
plate — you know, an out-of-state plate —
THE PRESIDENT: You check them.
MR. LEPAGE: — you get their name,
telephone number, where they’re going to
be. Problem solved. If you have
an uptick, you go right there.
THE PRESIDENT: So you’re giving away
your tourist season this year because —
MR. LEPAGE: That’s correct.
THE PRESIDENT: — it’s starting, right?
MR. LEPAGE: That is correct.
THE PRESIDENT: So you’re giving away
your tourist system.
MR. LEPAGE: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: I mean, she must know
this, right?
MR. LEPAGE: I would think she’s a
bright lady.
THE PRESIDENT: No, no, how does she do
a thing like this? She’s going to
destroy your state. All right, look,
I’m not a fan. I’m not a fan.
We’re going to solve your fishing
problem. We’re going to solve
something that nobody thought was
solvable. We’ll solve it very easily.
And, Peter, you’re going to handle that
other situation.
MR. NAVARRO: We’ll got on it.
Right on it.
THE PRESIDENT: That’s incredible.
Would you like to say something,
folks? Go ahead.
MS. RAYMOND: Yes, I would. Thank
you, Mr. President. It’s an honor to —
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. It’s
my honor.
MS. RAYMOND: It’s an honor to be here
to discuss with you the importance of
commercial fishing to our country. I
am the Executive Director of Associated
Fisheries of Maine, and I have more than 30
years’ experience in regional, national, and
international fisheries management.
And in all of that time, I have never known
a President to express a concern about the
wellbeing of our fishing and seafood
industries.
So thank you very much for your interest,
for your executive order promoting American
seafood, for this announcement that you’ve
made today which will allow our fishermen to
go back to work.
The Antiquities Act process —
THE PRESIDENT: And we’re doing that
immediately. Are we doing that as of
immediately?
SECRETARY BERNHARDT: You’re — you’re
opening up 5,000 square miles —
THE PRESIDENT: As of?
SECRETARY BERNHARDT: — with the stroke
of a pen.
THE PRESIDENT: As of when?
SECRETARY BERNHARDT: The minute you
sign it, we will begin planning —
THE PRESIDENT: I better get going
then.
SECRETARY BERNHARDT: And you’re taking
down —
PARTICIPANT: I’ll get my fishing pole.
SECRETARY BERNHARDT: You’re taking
down a “no fishing” sign and opening up
fishing.
THE PRESIDENT: I love that.
MS. RAYMOND: The process by which this
monument was established is a
non-transparent process that does not allow
for stakeholder input, does not — does not
produce any kind of economic analysis of the
negative impacts, and prevents all of us
from enjoying the benefits of our healthy
marine resources.
So, again, we appreciate that you’ve
recognized that and are taking action to
correct that.
THE PRESIDENT: And your
senators? Where were your senators for
all these years? What happened?
MR. LEPAGE: They abdicated their
responsibility. They went home early
this year because it’s an election year, and
gave all their power to our governor.
MS. RAYMOND: So, in addition to the
opposition from the fishing industry, the
Secretary of Commerce has also heard about
opposition from the regional fishery in all
eight regional fishery management councils
to establishing these monuments outside of
the regular management process. So
there has been a great deal of opposition to
that. And now you’re correcting that.
THE PRESIDENT: What would you do about
that?
MS. RAYMOND: Well —
THE PRESIDENT: The monuments, what
would you do?
MS. RAYMOND: The — the management of
fisheries within our exclusive economic zone
is rightfully managed under the
Magnuson–Stevens Fishery Conservation and
Management Act. So we have a process
to do that. We don’t need the
Antiquities Act to be establishing monuments
that restrict fishing.
THE PRESIDENT: So what do you need?
SECRETARY BERNHARDT: And you’re
bringing that process back.
MS. RAYMOND: Well, your — this order —
SECRETARY BERNHARDT: You’re bringing
that back.
MS. RAYMOND: — will take care of what
— of our immediate need.
THE PRESIDENT: Okay, so you’re going
to be okay? And this is going do —
SECRETARY BERNHARDT: You’re going to —
you’re going to take that back.
THE PRESIDENT: That’s a big thing,
right?
MR. LEPAGE: Yeah.
MS. RAYMOND: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: You’re so lucky I’m
President. (Laughter.) You are
so lucky. I don’t even know you, and
you’re so lucky.
MS. RAYMOND: Well, we’re also looking
to a pending action by the New England
Fishery Management Council and the National
Marine Fishery Service, which will likely be
voted on sometime in the fall, which would
establish a requirement for our fishing
boats to carry 100 percent of observers, or
at-sea monitors on all of our trips at our
own expense. And this could be as much
as $40,000 a year for some of our vessels.
This is simply an expense that we cannot
afford at this time, especially on the heels
— when we’ll be trying to recover from this
pandemic, which has had a huge impact on the
commercial fishing industry in New
England. We certainly cannot afford an
additional expense that is totally
discretionary. The law does not —
THE PRESIDENT: What’s happening with
that, David?
SECRETARY BERNHARDT: That’s in
process.
THE PRESIDENT: Huh?
SECRETARY BERNHARDT: That’s in process
at Commerce.
THE PRESIDENT: Get it done.
We’ll get it done. You’re not going to
have to —
MS. RAYMOND: Again — again, I’m just
putting it on your radar, Mr. President, so
that you can deal with it in the future.
THE PRESIDENT: So let me ask you a
question: So, European Union charges you a
20 percent tariff. And is China
charging a 40 percent tariff, or is that
not? What’s China charging?
Forty?
MS. RAYMOND: I — I’m not familiar with
that.
THE PRESIDENT: Or not? Do you
know, Paul?
MR. LEPAGE: What? China, right
now, is charging a tariff on Maine lobster
going to China, and our —
THE PRESIDENT: How much?
MR. LEPAGE: — our sales to China have
gone from like 600,000 pounds to less than
100,000 pounds.
THE PRESIDENT: So you went from
600,000 pounds — that’s the way you go — to
100,000 pounds? So you’re way down.
MR. LEPAGE: And — and the only way
that we’ll —
THE PRESIDENT: Is that because of the
tariff?
MR. LEPAGE: Yes. What they do —
THE PRESIDENT: Okay. So, Peter
— so, a corresponding tariff to China
for — pick a product — a corresponding-plus,
if they don’t drop the tariff on Maine
lobster going into China. Okay?
MR. NAVARRO: Yes, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: It’s very simple.
And I don’t mind.
MR. LEPAGE: Yeah, the distribution
companies have had to set up companies in
Canada. They ship their —
THE PRESIDENT: No, I know.
That’s what they do. They go through
different companies.
MR. LEPAGE: Yeah.
THE PRESIDENT: It’s called
transshipping —
MR. LEPAGE: Yeah.
THE PRESIDENT: — to be exact.
Transship. They transship.
Okay, ready?
MR. NAVARRO: Yes, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: China, EU. All
you do is say, “That’s okay. Keep
charging us and we’re going to charge you a
corresponding” — on something that they sell
that’s very precious to them. Put a
corresponding — it should be for the same
amount-plus.
MR. NAVARRO: Yes, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: We’ll take care of it.
Go ahead.
MR. O’HARA: Yeah, Mr. President —
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
MR. O’HARA: — we operate a few boats
here in Maine, but we also operate some
scallop boats and some factory processers
out in Alaska. And there is a tariff
on the flatfish that’s shipped into China
that stays there. So if we want to
ship to them and develop a market in China,
they do enforce a 25 percent tariff on it.
What we have available to us if they do
process some of the fish, it’s shipped back
to the United States and there is no tariff
on that coming in at this present time.
THE PRESIDENT: So what you’re saying
is we don’t charge them a tariff but they
charge us a tariff.
MR. O’HARA: That’s exactly right.
THE PRESIDENT: How stupid is that?
MR. O’HARA: We’re working on it.
THE PRESIDENT: How stupid is
that? Free traders — I tell you, the
free traders out there that are always
talking about this — “Oh, we’re free
traders.” How stupid is that?
So they charge us and then we don’t charge
them?
MR. O’HARA: Yeah. Yeah, you’d be
pleased to —
THE PRESIDENT: And they get paid for
doing the work, on top of everything.
MR. O’HARA: Right. You’ll be
pleased to know that we just had a zoom
meeting with Senator Sullivan last
night. He’s working on it. He’s
— he’s going to be in touch with a few
people. He wanted to say hello to you.
THE PRESIDENT: Sullivan is — Sullivan
is a good man.
MR. O’HARA: Yeah. Yeah. He
—
THE PRESIDENT: Sullivan is a good
man. He’ll — he’ll try, but —
MR. O’HARA: Yeah.
THE PRESIDENT: — nobody can do this
like I can.
MR. O’HARA: Yeah. It’s like —
it’s like everybody, though. We’re all
trying to do it —
THE PRESIDENT: It’s simple.
MR. O’HARA: Yeah.
THE PRESIDENT: It’ll be done.
MR. O’HARA: Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: It’s very simple.
He’s good guy — Dan Sullivan.
Paul, you’ve said enough. (Laughter.)
David, do you have anything to say, real
fast?
SECRETARY BERNHARDT: Well, I would
like to thank you for taking the time to
come listen to the fishing community.
Since the moment you took office, you’ve
been clear and consistent in your efforts to
bring common sense back to the executive
branch. You have done more than any
President in our lifetime to bring common
sense to government.
And when you think about it, 5,000 square
miles is an area that’s larger than the
state of Connecticut, the state of Delaware,
or Rhode Island. And the prior
administration essentially put a “No
Fishing” sign to these individuals with a
stroke of a pen, and you’re addressing
it. And your effort to ensure the
voices of the people are heard is deeply
appreciated across the country.
The folks here, they go out, they brave the
nation’s waters, they bring an incredible
natural resource benefit to the world, and
they have the challenging task of facing
whatever Mother Nature — nature puts in
front of them. They should not be in a
situation where they’re also having to fight
their own government. And they needed
commonsense bureaucracy, and you’re bringing
it.
And in doing so, we are not changing the
boundaries of the monument, and we will
remain protecting those objects that — that
need and are appropriately protected by
doing this. So thank you, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very
much. And these two people will get it
done. By luck, I happen to have the
two right people with me. All right?
Please.
MR. PORTER: Good afternoon, Mr.
President. My name is Kristan
Porter. I’m — I’m a — I’m a commercial
fisherman. I’ve been fishing for over
30 years. I fished for about
everything over those years.
THE PRESIDENT: And you love doing
that. You wouldn’t switch —
MR. PORTER: No.
THE PRESIDENT: — for anything, even
though they don’t let you fish anymore.
MR. PORTER: No. Well, I — I fish
— fish for different things. I fish
for scallops now and I fish for
lobster. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: But you love it, right?
MR. PORTER: Love it. It’s a way
of life, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: No, they love it.
People love it. You wouldn’t switch —
MR. PORTER: No. And —
THE PRESIDENT: — to be President,
right?
MR. PORTER: Right.
THE PRESIDENT: You’re making a good
decision. (Laughter.)
MR. PORTER: So — and I’m — I’m
president of the Maine Lobstermen’s
Association. And we — we support — the
Maine Lobster fleet supports 10,000 jobs on
the water and another 5,500 shore-side
jobs. So that’s why I’m passionate
about — about do- — working with regulations
and stuff.
THE PRESIDENT: Excuse me, do people
come in — it must be. Other — other
countries, they must send their ships into
this 5,000 big mile stretch. Right?
MR. PORTER: No. No, they
can’t. They can’t come in through the
(inaudible).
THE PRESIDENT: Really?
MR. PORTER: Yep.
THE PRESIDENT: So we get them out
through what, the Coast Guard?
MR. PORTER: Yeah —
THE PRESIDENT: The Navy?
PARITICIPANT: Coast Guard.
THE PRESIDENT: We get them out.
MR. PORTER: Yeah.
THE PRESIDENT: So we’re policing at
least, right?
MR. PORTER: Yeah, right.
THE PRESIDENT: So go ahead.
MR. PORTER: So, keeping —
keeping our nation’s fisheries strong is a
passion of mine. That’s why I’m great
— it’s great to have this opportunity to
talk to you about the process of the
Northeast Canyons and Seamount.
Rather than work with the constituents, who
actually fish there and were most
knowledgeable about the issue, like this guy
right here, this — this monument was formed
in backrooms with special interests.
This policy — this created poor policy —
THE PRESIDENT: When? During the
other administration, you mean?
MR. PORTER: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Which
administration? Obama?
MR. PORTER: The Obama administration
did this. At the very la- — in the
last —
THE PRESIDENT: Boy, he’s done you a —
he’s done — he’s done Maine a tremendous
disservice, I can tell you that, just from a
commonsense standpoint. How could you
let a thing like this happen?
MR. PORTER: This — this created poor
policy. It hurt the fishermen.
And we really worry about the precedent it
sets: that you can close large areas of
ocean and put all the rest of us who fish
for different things in smaller and smaller
boxes. So — and that — and that hurts
everybody.
THE PRESIDENT: So by opening up this
5,000 miles, you are just — this is a
treasure chest, huh?
MR. PORTER: It spreads — it spreads
boats, yes. Yeah. And that —
THE PRESIDENT: Did you ever think this
was going to happen in your lifetime?
MR. PORTER: No, I — I did not.
But the — the biggest thing is, is now — now
people think when they’re going to close
this. They got to — they’ve got to go
through the process. Fishermen need to
have the input into this —
THE PRESIDENT: Right.
MR. PORTER: — and we — we
didn’t. And so — and there’s not —
it’s not the only thing; there’s other
things. I just want to, as a
lobsterman, bring up something that I — I
would be run out of town if I didn’t bring
up to you.
THE PRESIDENT: Go ahead. Go
ahead.
MR. PORTER: It’s kind of the same
situation. Our fishery is in great
shape, through years and years of good
management. But, despite our
tremendous success, we find our industry
being risked of being shut down because of
the endangered right whale.
THE PRESIDENT: The endangered white
whale.
MR. PORTER: Right — right whale.
It’s a r- — and so — and we’ve been in ex- —
THE PRESIDENT: And why is that, in
other words? Because you have to be so
careful? What — what is it?
MR. PORTER: Right. The
entanglements and what they’re — what — what
—
THE PRESIDENT: Is that in the same
area that we’re talking about?
MR. PORTER: No, it’s a different
area. It’s — it’s along the coast
of Maine. So we — our association, our
executive director has had great
conversations with your staff. One of
them is here today; Alex Willette is
here. He’s up to speed on this.
You had —
THE PRESIDENT: Just — and go really
quick because we have to leave.
MR. PORTER: Yeah, we had —
THE PRESIDENT: Let me ask you this —
wait, wait, wait.
MR. PORTER: No. No, but —
THE PRESIDENT: How is this —
MR. PORTER: And your friend, right
here, sent you a letter, and he can bring
you up to speed —
THE PRESIDENT: Good.
MR. PORTER: — on this. But,
Governor, you’ve — you sent a letter —
THE PRESIDENT: How is the whale
— Paul, you know this.
MR. LEPAGE: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: How is the whale
hurting what they’re doing?
MR. LEPAGE: They’re — the right whale
is not hurting them. In fact, in the
last two decades, there’s not been an
entanglement or a death in Maine waters.
Now, there have been — they found some dead
whales in the Maine waters, but they came
down from where the problem area is, as
we’ve talked about earlier: the Saint
Lawrence Seaway. At the mouth of Saint
Lawrence Seaway is where all the deaths and
entanglement are.
THE PRESIDENT: So how do we solve this
problem?
MR. LEPAGE: We solve this problem by
going to NOAA and telling them to get
reasonable about their regulations.
THE PRESIDENT: Going to where?
MR. LEPAGE: NOAA. They are the
problem. And I’ve worked two years —
I’ve worked six years —
THE PRESIDENT: So you know — you know
what reasonable means then, right?
MR. LEPAGE: Yes, that’s correct.
THE PRESIDENT: Okay.
MR. LEPAGE: That’s correct.
THE PRESIDENT: Okay, so get them
done. Get them done.
Right? You work that, David.
SECRETARY BERNHARDT: I’ll talk to
them.
THE PRESIDENT: Okay.
MR. PORTER: We just want our voices
heard in the process. That’s what we
want.
THE PRESIDENT: We’ll — we’ll be able
to. I assume there’s a good solution
to that, right?
MR. LEPAGE: Yes, there is.
THE PRESIDENT: Okay. Work on
it. And we want to protect the
whale. I want to protect the whale,
too.
MR. PORTER: As we do, too.
THE PRESIDENT: As long as we can
protect the whale, I’m going to do it, all
right? So I’m going to leave it to
you.
MR. LEPAGE: We’re in. We’re
in. And I will say: You said one thing
that is so true about the fishermen in
Maine. Maine has the only sustainable
lobster fishery and certified in the
world. These people will do — bend
over backwards to save the laying — you
know, those that are the layers and the
youth — I mean, they just bend over
backwards. It’s not robbing the
bottom. And the one thing about a
Maine lobster —
THE PRESIDENT: You’ve been treated
very badly. You know that,
right? You better remember your
President.
MR. LEPAGE: I’ll say, the one thing
about a Maine —
THE PRESIDENT: You’ve been treated —
no, you guys — you’ve been treated very
badly. I know what they’ve done to
you; they’ve regulated you out of
business. And yet, you treated the
area like it was your home. I know
that.
Go ahead.
MR. LEPAGE: The one thing that
Washington has never understood: The Maine
lobstermen is a family-owned business.
It’s hand-me-down from father to son for
generations and generations. If father
kills all the lobster, the son goes — he’s
going to starve. And that’s what the
lobster industry is in Maine. It’s the
only one in the world. And Washington
bureaucrats are telling us we don’t know how
to fish.
THE PRESIDENT: We got it. All
right?
MR. PORTER: Thank you, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: You’ll work with Paul
on that.
MR. PORTER: Thank you, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Okay? Go ahead,
please.
MR. WILLIAMS: Thank you, Mr.
President. Jon Williams, owner of the
Atlantic Red Crab Company. I’m going
to change species a little bit; I’m in the
crab business, not the lobster business.
THE PRESIDENT: Good.
MR. WILLIAMS: I’ve been fishing in
this area — the 5,000 square miles —
personally, since 1995. And there were
people there before I was in there.
And the interesting thing is, going on
Maggie Raymond’s point, is the lack of
transparency in the process of setting these
5,000 miles apart, the industry was never
given the opportunity to get involved.
It was like (inaudible).
THE PRESIDENT: Well, not like now.
MR. WILLIAMS: Exactly. No, and
we appreciate it. And on one talking —
THE PRESIDENT: (Inaudible) knows more
than the industry.
MR. WILLIAMS: One talking point, on
your 2.5 —
THE PRESIDENT: So were you stopped
from fishing in the 5,000 miles (inaudible)?
MR. WILLIAMS: In that — in that 5,000
miles —
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. So what —
and that’s prime area, right?
MR. WILLIAMS: Well, this is — this is
the ironic part of the whole thing: They
said that they had to shut that 5,000 miles
down for an emergency presidential action,
and I was very vocal about it, and they
grandfathered me for seven more years in
that 5,000 mile area. So —
THE PRESIDENT: So is the — when is the
seven years up?
MR. WILLIAMS: We’re about halfway
through it.
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, you’re lucky.
You just made it. (Laughter.)
MR. WILLIAMS: We’ve had our fingers
crossed since you got elected.
THE PRESIDENT: So, is that very
fertile, in terms of crabs?
MR. WILLIAMS: Yes, it’s very fertile.
THE PRESIDENT: Because nobody is
taking them, right?
MR. WILLIAMS: It’s the — yeah.
We harvest from Virginia, all the way to
Canada.
THE PRESIDENT: So they gave you a
grandfather of seven years, and your seven
years is up.
MR. WILLIAMS: Then we’re out.
THE PRESIDENT: How many people were
grandfathered?
MR. WILLIAMS: It was my fishery and
the offshore lobster fishery.
THE PRESIDENT: You must be a rich guy,
right? (Laughter.)
Now, let me as you this —
MR. WILLIAMS: I have a good
banker. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. Do you have
the problem with the European Union too?
MR. WILLIAMS: I don’t. I don’t
do very much export to Europe; most of it’s
domestic.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, you can’t.
With the tariff, you can’t.
MR. WILLIAMS: Exactly. Exactly.
THE PRESIDENT: So you don’t bother.
MR. WILLIAMS: And the other thing is,
is I want to bring up that hasn’t brought —
been brought up is we have a — we have a
public process that’s been in place for
years and years and years to protect our
resources and the ocean floor. And
when you gasped at 5,000 miles and how big
of an area that is, since ’95, I think
there’s been — you’d have to correct me, but
it’s roughly 60,000 miles have been
protected already. But they were
protected in arenas like this. It
included scientists, fishermen, and
environmentalists.
THE PRESIDENT: And is that wrong?
MR. WILLIAMS: That’s right.
THE PRESIDENT: So you like it?
MR. WILLIAMS: I think — I think when
you get a group of scientists and —
THE PRESIDENT: Okay, so there you
think we did the right thing?
MR. WILLIAMS: I think that, you know —
THE PRESIDENT: Meaning, people did the
right thing.
MR. WILLIAMS: I think that it’s a
public process, as cumbersome as that can
be, and sometimes I walked out of meetings
not happy with the results, but it works.
THE PRESIDENT: But at least it went
through a process.
MR. WILLIAMS: And it allows —
THE PRESIDENT: And this did not go
through a process.
MR. WILLIAMS: Zero. We had zero
words.
THE PRESIDENT: This didn’t go through
a process.
MR. WILLIAMS: And this one —
THE PRESIDENT: This was done for
politics. I got it.
MR. WILLIAMS: Total politics.
Just one last comment on it is — is, of
course, where the industry was left to
remain completely silent and not to go
public, the millions of literature and
propaganda and websites and everything, they
were out there saying, “We need to save this
5,000 miles because this bottom is pristine,
and we can’t allow these fishermen in there
because it’s pristine.” Well, we’ve
been in there for 40 years. And so if
the environmental groups can deem the place
pristine and we’ve been operating in that
area for 40 years and they can’t find any
evidence where we’ve done any damage, I
would say we’ve been pretty good stewards of
that 5,000 miles.
THE PRESIDENT: It’s great stuff down
there, right?
MR. WILLIAMS: It’s great stuff.
THE PRESIDENT: Great stuff. Take
care of it. All right? That’s
the one thing I’m asking you: Take care of
it. Okay?
Please, go ahead.
MR. ODLIN: Yeah. I just wanted
to — my name is James Odlin. I’ve been
involved in this fisheries for 50 years, off
New England, both as a captain and as a
vessel fleet owner. And I served on
the council for nine years, helping make
some of these regulations. I worked on
the habitat committee issues, where we
worked for many years. And then we
were ready to roll. And all of a
sudden, we get this order that said, “Your
work doesn’t matter. We’re going to go
ahead and just close 5,000 whole square
miles.” We were looking at discrete —
THE PRESIDENT: So this is a really big
—
MR. ODLIN: — special areas.
THE PRESIDENT: This is a really big
deal for you people, isn’t it?
MR. ODLIN: We worked long and hard on
that.
THE PRESIDENT: This is the whole deal?
MR. ODLIN: Yeah.
THE PRESIDENT: Wow.
MR. ODLIN: And it — and I just got one
other thing, Mr. President. You know,
I want to reiterate that the stocks of fish
off New England — groundfish — are at
historic highs.
THE PRESIDENT: Is that because you
were a stopped from fishing?
MR. ODLIN: Because of fish — proper
fish management. The issue is: We’ve
got millions of pounds of fish out there
that are not getting caught annually, which
would equate into hundreds and hundreds of
jobs. And we need —
THE PRESIDENT: So will I be allowed to
go fishing in that 5,000-mile piece?
MR. ODLIN: Sure, you could.
THE PRESIDENT: Would you mind if I
took a little boat and went fishing out
there? (Laughter.) Huh?
MR. ODLIN: So we’ve got some
regulations that are preventing us from
harvesting these healthy, sustainable fish
stocks, and we need help getting those
regulations —
THE PRESIDENT: Is that not being taken
care of in what we’re doing?
MR. ODLIN: Well, this — I just heard
this now, that they’ve got — they’ve asked
the National Marine Fishery Services and
Commerce to look at some of those
regulations.
THE PRESIDENT: You know about it?
SECRETARY BERNHARDT: Yeah, it’s a
Commerce issue. I’m happy to work with
him on it.
THE PRESIDENT: You’re going to — just
take it over.
MR. ODLIN: But I have some worries
that they will just tweak around the edges
and not really do —
THE PRESIDENT: All right, David will
take care of that.
MR. ODLIN: I have some inside
information that that’s going to happen.
THE PRESIDENT: Okay. We got it.
SECRETARY BERNHARDT: Okay.
MR. NAVARRO: If I may, sir, the
executive order that you signed several
weeks ago has very clear, direct
instructions to take care of those
regulations. So this President is
already on this case.
PARTICIPANT: That’s right.
MR. NAVARRO: There is a process
underway. And that gentleman across
the way will ensure that the commercial
fisherman of this state will be able to fish
the waters here without undo regulation,
full stop.
THE PRESIDENT: So we’re cutting
regulations from highways and roadways to
fish. That’s what Peter is talking
about.
MR. NAVARRO: Yes, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Go ahead. Peter,
do you have anything to say?
MR. NAVARRO: This is the jobs
President. This trip today goes and
creates jobs from Brunswick and Bath, to
Bangor and Guilford, all the way up and down
from Bar Harbor down to Kennebunkport.
And this President is the working-class
President, and this state is a hardscrabble
state. It’s a working-class
state. And people in this state should
not have to face the federal government that
takes away your livelihood.
These two executive orders combined are the
greatest news for commercial fishermen in
the last 50 years. And this first
order will clear off the decks of undo
regulation. The second order, as soon
as he signs that and gives away the pens to
all you folks here, will set free the
fishermen of this state. It’s a great
day.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, they took your
lives away. They took your livelihood
away from you. So that’s good.
Good. Thank you, Peter.
(Applause.)
MR. NAVARRO: Yes, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Well said.
Please, go ahead.
MS. TOOLEY: Thank you, Mr.
President. First, I just wanted to
thank you for coming to the state of Maine
to talk to our commercial fishing
industry. As was pointed out already,
it is a first, and we truly appreciate it.
And we also appreciate the action you’re
taking today. I don’t think there’s a
single industry person around this table
that disagrees on the need for it, and why
it is so important. So, thank you very
much.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
MS. TOOLEY: My name is Mary Beth
Tooley. I am the government affairs
manager for the O’Hara Corporation out of
Rockland, Maine.
I brought the boss with me today. He’s
on the other side of the table: Frank
O’Hara, Jr., president of a family-held
company, as I said, in Rockland,
Maine. And I know that he spoke
already. He provides an awesome
history of a family-held company that
started in 1907, in T-Wharf in Boston,
Massachusetts, has been present here in the
state of Maine since 1944, and is definitely
multi-generational. He has sons coming
up and grandchildren being born. And
the goal of the company is to maintain —
THE PRESIDENT: Good. Well, now
they have a place, right?
MS. TOOLEY: — sustainable fish.
THE PRESIDENT: Now they have a place.
MS. TOOLEY: So I didn’t know, Frank,
if you wanted to add anything to that before
I go on?
MR. O’HARA: What’s that?
MS. TOOLEY: Do you want to add
anything on — on that before I go on?
MR. O’HARA: No, no, you got it.
(Laughter.) You know, we’ve — we’ve
been around for a while, and we’ve gone
through wars, depressions. We’ve
gotten through overfishing from the foreign
coun- —
THE PRESIDENT: But this was the worst
thing that you’ve been through, I’ll bet,
right? What happened you when they
took this away, this —
MR. O’HARA: Didn’t affect us as much
as it would have affected Jon, but it will —
it will affect us, because once they take
one mountain or one canyon, they’ll take
another one and another one. They’ll
go over to the West Coast —
THE PRESIDENT: Are you involved in
that area, the 5,000 miles?
MR. O’HARA: We — we used to be, but
we’re not. We do scalloping, which is
more to the south of that. So our
scallop boats, which is replicated by that
model over there, we — we do some scallops
but mostly it’s crap and lobsters out that
way. We’re — we’re flatfish —
THE PRESIDENT: Is that a new boat?
MR. O’HARA: It is.
THE PRESIDENT: Like a — and so that’s
occurred —
MR. O’HARA: It was a new boat built
down in (inaudible).
THE PRESIDENT: So they look — they
look pretty old, right? There’s a lot
of design talent there, huh?
MR. O’HARA: Yeah. Yeah, they got
the new bulbous bow and a Kort nozzle.
It’s a — it’s lower carbon footprint.
We’re building another boat starting next
year.
THE PRESIDENT: How much is the
boat? How much — brand new, how much
does that boat cost?
MR. O’HARA: Just under $4 million.
THE PRESIDENT: How much?
MR. O’HARA: Just under $4 million
THE PRESIDENT: It’s the real deal,
right?
MR. O’HARA: Yeah. Yeah.
THE PRESIDENT: Very good. Okay,
good. Well, you’re in good
shape. Thank you very much.
MS. TOOLEY: So, if I could — excuse
me, I’m sorry. I just had —
THE PRESIDENT: Go ahead, please.
MS. TOOLEY: But I just wanted to say
very briefly, because I don’t need to be
repetitive. I’m a former member of the
New England Fishery Management Council and
served for — for nine years on that
council. And so you here — have here
around the table current members of the
council, past members of the council.
Most of our industry people have all served
as advisory panel members to councils,
committees — and we hope one former council
member as well. And, you know, as —
the public process, I think people have
outlined why we think it’s so important and
— and we certainly do endorse that.
And I will leave it at that. Thank you
again.
THE PRESIDENT: Okay. Thank you
very much. Good job.
Please.
MR. ALEXANDER: Hi. I’m Terry
Alexander. I own Jordan Lynn
Incorporated. It’s a commercial
fishing company. And I base all my
comments on trying to convince you to sign
that executive order. So they’re —
they’re pretty moot right now. But I
would just like to point out some of the
highlights on it and then maybe touch on
some ideas.
THE PRESIDENT: We’ll go quickly.
(Inaudible.)
MR. ALEXANDER: Okay. Okay.
So thank you, Mr. President, for supporting
our nation’s fisheries and fishing
communities. These — these monuments,
even though they’re south of New England,
they push people, they displace people, and
they’re affecting the entire fleet all the
way to shore. So it’s a good thing to
open up area to let —
THE PRESIDENT: So that gets solved.
MR. ALEXANDER: Right.
Yeah. So the —
THE PRESIDENT: Excuse me. Are
there media from Maine here? Who’s —
who’s — are you liking what we’re
doing? Huh? You can say.
Yes, you do? Anybody else from
Maine? From the area? They —
they all come up from Washington,
unfortunately.
Q (Inaudible.)
THE PRESIDENT: Okay. Go ahead.
MR. ALEXANDER: Yeah, so — so you —
that’s already done, so I’m going to — I’m
going to touch on a couple ideas of how —
how the Canadians — how it’s not fair for
the Canadians, the way we have comp- — we
compete against the Canadians off shore.
THE PRESIDENT: All right, tell me
about that one.
MR. ALEXANDER: All right, so we — we
try to get haddock. Different size,
same fish. We — we negotiate with the
Canadians every year.
THE PRESIDENT: And how do you find
negotiating with them?
MR. ALEXANDER: They’re pretty
good. I’m on the TMGC. I’m on
the New England Fishery Management
Council. I’m in my eighth year
there. They’ve been good. And we
nego- — we negotiate every year. And
they catch — they catch their entire quota
almost every year. We catch 10 percent
of our quota every year.
THE PRESIDENT: What’s the difference
in the size of the quota?
MR. ALEXANDER: Well, we’re about even
on haddock and —
but it’s — it’s because of our regulations
over here. Our mesh size is the wrong
size for catching haddock over here.
So, you know, that — that needs to be
fixed. And we can get that stuff done
through the council. But the — we need
that stuff done through the council.
(The President passes a piece of paper.)
THE PRESIDENT: You can sell that on
Ebay tonight.
MR. ALEXANDER: (Laughs.) I won’t
sell it.
THE PRESIDENT: Go ahead.
MR. ALEXANDER: But, you know, we can
fix that through the council. We just
need the incentive of D.C. pushing that
stuff — that kind of stuff through.
THE PRESIDENT: We’ll get that
done. And you’re working on that.
MR. ALEXANDER: Yeah. So —
THE PRESIDENT: We’ll get that done.
MR. ALEXANDER: Yeah.
THE PRESIDENT: It’s an honor to be
doing what we’re doing. I mean, you
people — basically, they took away your
livelihood. It’s ridiculous.
They took away your life.
Wait a minute. One second. I’m
going to sign this for you. Here.
Whoever wants this, here. Take
that.
So come on around real quick and we’re going
to sign this up. And take one of
these. You can hand that out.
MS. TOOLEY: Thank you very much.
THE PRESIDENT: Maybe do a little room,
I guess. Congratulations. Come
on, David. Come on, Peter.
So we’re giving Maine back a big part of its
history, a big part of its industry, and
we’re giving you back your fishing rights to
5,000 miles of — square miles — that’s a
lot. Boy, that’s a big chunk.
That’s a big chunk of water, isn’t that
right?
So, do very well. Say hello to the
people of Maine. They’re great
people. They were very nice to me,
I’ll tell you that. And I appreciate
it very much, but I know you appreciate it
much more than I do because you’re getting a
lot more than I am. Okay? So
good luck everybody.
(The executive order is signed.)
And they’re going to work on those other
things with Peter and David.
Okay? (Applause.)
END
3:11 P.M. EDT