Bryan Szeliga, owner of Fishtown Seafood in Philadelphia, has been trying to find the best way to navigate the Trump administration’s on-again, off-again tariffs on imports from Canada, writes Mae Anderson for AP News.
In their latest iteration, the 25 percent tariffs went into effect last week but were suspended on some items for a month days later. The flip-flopping is making it hard for Szeliga to plan ahead.
If the tariffs are eventually fully implemented, he will have to increase prices and offer his customers fewer choices of oysters.
“Part of the problem of the ‘chaos and shock and awe’ approach to the negotiation is you can’t actually really business plan based on knowing what is and isn’t actually going to happen,” he said. “That’s a big problem.”
Between 60 and 70 percent of the oysters Szeliga sells come from Canada.
He quantified his reasoning on the fact that Canadian oysters are big and have a high flavor profile. There is also the “brand recognition element that our customers prefer and have grown to love,” Szeliga added.
While receiving a month’s reprieve, Szeliga now plans to adjust his inventory to be less affected by the tariffs — including replacing higher-quality oysters with domestic or lower-priced offerings from Canada.
Read more about Fishtown Seafood and how the oyster industry is being impacted by tariffs in AP News.
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