Should the seafood industry fear a Joe Biden presidency?

Labor rights, environmental issues and the COVID pandemic are likely to be among the main priorities affecting the activities of seafood companies, at least in the early stages of the Joe Biden presidency.

How the president's main priorities may affect the seafood industry were outlined by National Fisheries Institute (NFI) Vice President of Government Affairs & General Counsel Robert Bob DeHaan in an NFI webinar on Friday.

Biden stepped into office Jan. 20, citing four overlapping crises: the COVID-19 pandemic, the resultant economic crisis, the global climate crisis and a racial equity crisis that all demand urgent action.

These four pillars are expected drive the administration actions, especially where they don't require congressional input or approval through the legislative process.

The president entered the White House with both Congress and the Senate divided, likely coloring the policies he wants to prioritize.

In a sense this means there could be two administrations, in DeHaan's view, one fulfilling campaign promises to the president's base, using executive orders where restraints exist on legislative authority, the other governing through incremental change by wooing lawmakers across the aisle or even deferring action until such time the possibility for legislative action is better.

One example of this incremental change may be the gradual phasing in of a $15 (€12.45) an hour national minimum wage, which Biden included as an item in his $1.9 trillion (€1.6 trillion) COVID-19 stimulus relief package.

While rivers of ink are being spilled on speculating what the new president may do and what is possible, putting aside speculation, the general arc of the administration's policy is clear, DeHaan said.

Biden is expected to be a very pro-regulatory president. Some deregulatory polices implemented by the previous administration have already been rolled back.

"On environment, worker safety, health and labor rights I think you will see a very aggressive administration stepping out on a lot of areas, some of which will affect the seafood operating environment, particularly the labor environment and COVID will have a big impact on what that looks like," DeHaan said.

For some seafood businesses, environmental rules rollbacks will have an impact, for others it won't, while economic policy will be largely driven by COVID, lockdowns, and the success of vaccination programs, the executive noted.

Both the White House and the Federal Reserve will want to keep interest rates very low this year. On trade policy, with an eye to a second term, Biden will be reluctant to change policies that garnered support among working class communities in the Midwest, especially where the support of unionized labor is a factor.

"For those policies that are problematic for our industry -- and there are many -- it's going to be difficult to secure major rollbacks of Trump administration policies," DeHaan said.

For that reason it will be interesting to see how trade policy with China unfolds along with aquaculture and fisheries.

A strong emphasis on multilateralism, which was cast aside by Trump, will leave Biden administration officials deciding how much foreign policy goals should take precedence over trade policy.

"It's a mixed bag of things on trade and that will obviously have a significant impact on the global sourcing environment both for companies here in the domestic market and the export markets that have had a very bumpy ride in the last few years," he said.

On the domestic scene, increased federal spending and low interest rates are likely to influence the trading environment.

Where Biden has views on policy areas, "he will be driving the train." But where he defers to senior staff, it is very important for the NFI as a lobbying group to identify those overseeing issues relevant to the seafood industry including the China trade dispute for example, a process that has already begun, DeHaan said.