Schafer Fisheries Gets Good News - and Bad NewsTom KocalIn an update from the office of U.S. Congressman Don Manzullo, Rich Carter, Director of Communications, had some good - and bad - news for the folks at Schafer Fisheries in Thomson. The news is in regard to the March 3 story (“Let My Fishies Go) where Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was asked by U.S. Representative Don Manzullo (R-IL 16th Congressional Dist.) to resolve a trade dispute that has been holding up a 198-ton shipment of Asian Carp from the Carroll County processor headed for Israel. Two containers of finished, frozen fillets were being held in a customs warehouse in Haifa, Israel, and 7 more in the states. The containers were initially shipped to a processing plant to be prepared for the Jewish holiday Passover, which starts March 30. The Good News“We have partial movement on the fish,” Carter told The Prairie Advocate Friday, March 12. “The Israeli government agreed to reduce the tariff in half and then released one of the two containers in Haifa. Schafer has received payment on that container from the Israeli processor. “We are working on several fronts to get the tariff waived on the second container,” Carter said, “so it can be released to the processor in time for Passover. Schafer Fisheries tells me the second container still could be processed in time. “We have four federal agencies working on this – State, Commerce (ITA), USDA (Foreign Ag Service) and USTR – and Congressman Manzullo is in contact with the Israeli Ambassador’s office. This is our immediate focus. We are also working to get the Israeli government to eliminate the tariff on carp so Schafer can continue its 4-year relationship with exporting carp to Israel without the tariffs.” Initially, the Israeli government was holding the second container, already in Israel, until payment of the tariff was received. But on Friday, Carter explained, “The Israeli Embassy just called to tell us they are not holding the second container in lieu of payment (although they still have not released the second container). Here is how the commercial attaché at the Israeli Embassy described the situation to Manzullo’s office: “Israel is working as quickly as possible on implementing a new ‘quota’ system for importing carp from the United States,” Carter said. “A typical scenario would work out like this: an importer would ship 20 tons of product in one container to Israel and pay the full duty (10 shekels per kilo, representing about a 90 percent duty rate) up front. Then for the second container, the importer would apply to the Ministry of Agriculture in Israel to have the product enter Israel duty free. This would mean an effective duty rate of 45 percent (5 shekels per kilo) for both containers, a decrease of 50 percent.” Carter said the Israeli Embassy confirmed that the customer in Israel (Extra Foods) paid the full duty on Schafer’s product on Wednesday and awaits the adoption and implementation of this new quota system in order to apply for the second container to enter Israel duty-free. This would then be applied to the other seven containers awaiting shipment from the U.S. to Israel, assuming that Extra Foods would still be interesting in receiving the product (if they haven’t found a substitute source by then). “This new quota system still needs to be approved by various Israeli ministries and published in their equivalent of the Federal Register,” Carter said. “It would also need to be approved during an open meeting of the Finance Committee of the Israeli Knesset.” The Bad NewsAlthough the release of the two containers is good news for Schafer Fisheries, the Israeli’s insist on retaining the tariff. “The Embassy confirmed for me that there is indeed counter-pressure being applied from the Israeli domestic fish farming industry to do nothing on this issue and keep the tariffs in place as they were implemented on October 13, 2009,” Carter stated. “However, because of a free trade agreement between Israel and Canada that includes zero tariffs on carp products, Schafer Fisheries expects that after this brouhaha is over, the Israeli customer of Schafer Fisheries will soon switch to purchasing carp from Canada because there is no way a U.S. company can cut its pricing in half to make up for the higher tariff in order to compete effectively in Israel. “Further frustrating this is that according to Schafer Fisheries, the domestic fish farming industry in Israel can only meet about 10 percent of current demand so this new tariff policy will only lead to higher prices for Israeli consumers and dampening export sales of gefilte fish made in Israel.” Carter added, “Although we have an agreement, carp is not part of it for some reason. We are trying to get the tariff eliminated permanently.”
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