A convention seafood battle looms as lobster waits in the wings to take on calamari.
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Version 0 of 1. It’s not just jobs, taxes and the coronavirus that the Republicans and the Democrats disagree on. The two parties are also poles apart when it comes to their representative seafood. Last week, Rhode Island calamari became a breakout star of the Democratic convention after a party official announced the state delegation’s votes for presidential nominee while standing beside a masked chef proffering a plate of fried squid rings — Rhode Island’s official state appetizer. Tonight at the Republican convention, it’s lobster’s turn in the spotlight. An eighth-generation Maine lobsterman, Jason Joyce, has a speaking spot, in which he is expected to laud President Trump’s trade and fisheries policies. Mr. Trump foreshadowed Mr. Joyce’s speech on Twitter Tuesday morning. “Beautiful Maine Lobsters will now move tariff-free to Europe! For first time in many years,” the president wrote. He was referring to an agreement that American and European trade officials reached last week in which the European Union eliminated tariffs on imports of American lobsters. Maine’s lobster landings decreased during the first three years of the Trump presidency, partly because of natural fluctuations but partly because of retaliatory tariffs that China imposed in 2018 as part of Mr. Trump’s trade war with China. This has been a dismal summer for Maine lobstermen, as the tourism trade that they rely on has been crushed by the coronavirus. |