When Tariffs Hit What the U.S. Can’t Produce: A Maine Seafood Importer’s Story

In Portland, Maine, a two-person seafood importer is facing an impossible situation. Their business depends on fresh fish from Iceland and Norway — species that U.S. boats cannot harvest in sufficient quantities due to long-standing sustainability regulations designed to prevent overfishing in American waters.

Under normal circumstances, the company operates on a 10–15% margin, competing with a wide range of center-of-the-plate proteins. But since this summer, nothing about their operations has been normal.

They described what the past few months have looked like:

“The products we import are not harvested in sufficient quantities by domestic fishing vessels. Since July we have paid in excess of $100,000 in extra tariffs. Those tariffs are required to be paid in advance of the shipment clearing customs, creating a severe cash-flow issue for our company.”

Unlike larger distributors, they can’t raise prices without losing customers. And unlike domestic producers, they can’t simply source locally — because the product doesn’t exist here in the volumes required. That leaves them stuck absorbing tariff costs that arrive before their shipments even clear customs.

For a business run by just two people, a surprise six-figure tariff bill is more than a setback — it’s destabilizing. Their story illustrates the consequences of emergency tariff authority: small companies with thin margins and essential roles in the food system are bearing the brunt of policy swings they cannot plan for or avoid.

They join more than 800 members of the We Pay the Tariffs coalition, raising their voices about how these policies are reshaping their operations, their finances, and their futures.

📢 If your small business has been directly affected by tariffs, we invite you to join WPTT. Add your name to our open letter and stand with other companies navigating the same pressures.