Alaska Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan attempted to fast-track a bill to stop U.S. seafood imports from Russia that are being funneled through China, but was blocked Thursday on the Senate floor.
Sullivan and the Alaska delegation proposed the U.S.-Russian Federation Seafood Reciprocity Act of 2023 to stop allowing the U.S. to import Russian-origin seafood that has been processed in China.
The delegation argues that permitting such imports undercuts the efficacy of sanctions on Russia during its war in Ukraine. There’s also an issue of fairness — Russia banned importing U.S. seafood products in 2014 as the U.S. imposed sanctions during Russia’s invasion of Crimea.
Sullivan said in a speech on the Senate floor that the imports are a “giant loophole. It’s happening every day. It’s an outrage.”
In response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Biden administration announced a Russian seafood import ban in 2022, after years of prompting from the Alaska congressional delegation. However, the U.S. has continued to import seafood originating in Russia through China.
About a third of wild-caught fish imported from China has been estimated to come from Russia, with higher rates for pollock and sockeye salmon, according to a 2021 United States International Trade Commission report. In 2021, China sent $1.7 billion in fish to the U.S.
Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola joined Sullivan in introducing the bill last week.
Environmentalists have also long raised concerns about importing Russian seafood given the nation’s poor sustainability track record. And in May, Alaska Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang called on the Marine Stewardship Council to rescind certifying Russian seafood harvests as sustainable.