Protecting American fishermen and seafood marketsRep. Smith, Sen. Sullivan lead letter to President Trump urging ban of Chinese seafood linked to forced labor and illegal fishing

A bipartisan, bicameral group of lawmakers and members of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) are asking President Trump to issue an Executive Order banning seafood harvested by Chinese-linked vessels or processed in China from entering the United States. The letter was spearheaded by CECC Co-Chair Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Chair Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK), and signed by fellow CECC Commissioners Reps. Dale Strong (R-AL) and Tom Suozzi (D-NY). In their letter, the lawmakers commend President Trump’s April 2025 Executive Order ( EO 14276 ) to restore American seafood competitiveness and urge the Administration to take the next step by closing the U.S. market to marine products linked to the People’s Republic of China (PRC)’s forced labor and illegal fishing practices. “We urge you to use your authority to make our country the least hospitable market in the world for Chinese harvested seafood,” write the Members of Congress. “Chinese seafood is too often produced through forced labor and enters our market at prices honest American fishermen cannot match. That is not competition. It is abuse shipped into the United States.” The letter details abuses across China’s seafood industry, including debt bondage, passport confiscation, violent abuse, labor trafficking, avoidable deaths, and coercive labor transfers. These abuses affect workers aboard fishing vessels, in seafood-processing plants, and in aquaculture operations, including operations connected to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) and Tibet. The lawmakers note that “federal agencies have already recognized the seriousness of this risk,” underscoring that the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has identified fish harvested by Chinese distant-water vessels as a forced labor concern, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has made seafood a high-priority enforcement sector under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act ( PL 117-78 ), of which Smith was an original co-sponsor. The Members of Congress further reiterate the food-safety concerns associated with Chinese seafood, stating that “the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has imposed import controls on certain seafood from China and Hong Kong because of unsafe drug and additive risks, including products farmed and harvested outside China, but processed there.” The letter also warns that China’s distant-water fishing fleet is not merely a commercial enterprise, but rather “a subsidized maritime force that takes resources, pressures coastal states, and expands Beijing’s influence.” As such, the co-signers urge the President to adopt an import prohibition modeled on existing restrictions on Russian seafood and designed to prevent evasion through transshipment, relabeling, repacking, or processing in third countries. “The United States cannot inspect every vessel or police every agreement the Chinese routinely break, but we can decide what enters our market. If you engage in illegal fishing and use slave labor, you should not have access to the American market,” the lawmakers argue. “Banning Chinese seafood from the United States would back American fishermen, protect American consumers, support our allies, and cut off profits from a system built on abuse and coercion.” ###