Put this one in our new "easy to win a trade war" category:
Next month, China is expected to impose an additional 25 percent tariff on American lobster as the sparring over trade continues and Mr. Trump threatens to impose tariffs on as much as $450 billion worth of Chinese goods.
Annie Tselikis, executive director of the Maine Lobster Dealers’ Association, said that Mr. Trump’s policy was having the unintended effect of further helping Canada’s lobster market, which doesn’t face the same duties when selling to China. And Canadian sellers were already benefiting from a new trade agreement with the European Union that slashed tariffs for them.
China buys about a fifth of American lobster exports, Ms. Tselikis said, and the value of those exports has nearly tripled in the last two years to $137 million.
“I’d love see these tariffs not go through for the sake of our industry and the Maine economy,” Ms. Tselikis said. “At this point it’s really about American jobs.”
Kristan Porter, the president of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, said that he supported Mr. Trump’s efforts to renegotiate trade agreements to help American industry but hoped his was not harmed in the process.
“I’m sure everybody is playing their hands and we’re caught in the middle of it,” he said. “We’re hoping cooler heads prevail.”
Urban Dictionary puts it this way:
"[Hope] in one hand, [poop] in the other. See which one gets filled first." When a person wants the impossible.
