Norwegian salmon exporters ‘facing tough times’

The Norwegian employer organisation Seafood Norway has warned that the salmon industry
and other branches face a tough time ahead if Donald Trump’s tariffs continue for long.
Norway faces extra tariffs of 15% higher than the 10% of rival salmon producing countries such
as the UK, Iceland and the Faroe Islands.

Now Trond Davidsen (pictured) , the international director at Seafood Norway, has said that the
United State was Norway’s largest market and worth NOK 4.6 billion (£330m).

“Yes, this is serious,” he said. “The USA is our largest single market and in February alone
seafood worth NOK 1.6 billion (£115m) was exported.

Davidsen said the most important thing was for the industry to get an overview and find out
exactly what the extra bill will be.

He also said that while the US was the largest single market, a greater part of Norway’s
seafood exports (particularly salmon) was exported into the European Union and was worth
NOK 7.4 billion (£532m) in February.

“It is very important that Norwegian authorities succeed in their work to ensure that Norway
avoids being hit by a possible protective tariff, said Davidsen.

“Exports from Norway are very important. For us, it is important that work is now underway on
more free trade agreements, for example with Japan. This work must be accelerated, he
declared.

The situation was absurd, Tommy Torvanger, head of the Tromsø seafood producer Nergård told
his local newspaper Nordlys that “It’s a bit crazy that this is happening so fast. We’re facing
huge changes in such a short period of time.”
He said the industry was in a type of limbo at the moment, wondering what to do and what will
happen.