Shrimpers pleased with Trump tariffs
Investors are losing trillions. Corporate leaders are sweating. Consumers are stockpiling. But in a tiny bayou town dotted with marshes, the shrimpers are celebrating President Trump’s tariffs.
“When I saw the announcement, I could hardly believe it at first,” said Jeremy Zirlott, a commercial shrimper in town. “It seemed too good to be true.”
Trump’s sweeping new tariff regime unveiled last week includes the countries that export most of shrimp Americans consume. That includes rates of around 26% on India, 10% on Ecuador, 32% on Indonesia and 46% on Vietnam.
In Bayou La Batre and small shrimping towns like it, the economy has cratered in recent years on the back of a deluge of cheap, farmed shrimp. Fishermen unable to sell their shrimp to break even on gas, labor and supplies have had to tie up their boats. Supply shops, seafood processors, marine technicians and others in the industry have suffered, too.
More than 90% of the millions of pounds of shrimp consumed annually in the U.S. is imported, according to the Southern Shrimp Alliance, based on an analysis of data from the U.S. International Trade Commission.
Even at its height, the shrimping industry represents a fraction of America’s economic output. Its revival is hardly enough to make up for the demise of the auto industry, for instance, which has a big footprint in the South. Yet for this coastal corner of Alabama, the industry dominates its fortunes.
In Bayou La Batre, when the shrimping industry suffers, so does the entire town. Income and sales-tax revenue plummeted around 40% between 2021 and 2024 alone, according to Mayor Henry D. Barnes.
“People were looking to me for answers, and I didn’t have them,” said Barnes, who is 62 years old. “The city can’t put tariffs on foreign seafood.”
After Trump won re-election, Barnes sent him a letter pleading for tariffs on imported shrimp. “The apostles were mending nets when Jesus approached them,” he wrote.
He felt that the president’s announcement of sweeping tariffs on some of the biggest shrimp exporters was the answer to his prayers.
“We could come back the way it used to be,” Barnes said.
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Back when I was racing my sailboat on Galveston Bay, I often saw the local shrimpers out with their boats and nets. I would often go to local restaurants on the Bay afterwards for shrimp dinners. Having moved to the country, those dinners are now a rarity. I do find it surprising that they cannot compete.
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