China extends tariff relief on Canadian crab and lobster through 2028
China has agreed to keep its 25% countermeasure off Canadian crab and lobster for another two years. The suspension, first granted earlier this year, had been due to expire on 31 December. It will now run to the end of 2028, according to Global Affairs Canada, after a meeting of the Joint Economic and Trade Commission in Beijing on 4 November.
The meeting was co-chaired by Canada's international trade minister, Maninder Sidhu, and China's commerce minister, Wang Wentao. Canada extended remission measures on certain Chinese steel and aluminium products in return.
Crab and lobster were the only seafood lines Global Affairs Canada named in the relief. That is a narrow list, and it tells you where Chinese buying interest sits.
The Numbers
The suspended levy is 25%, applied to Canadian seafood under China's "anti-discrimination" tariff package. Canola meal and peas sit under a separate 100% levy that was also suspended and also pushed out to the end of 2028. Canada shipped more than 975,000 tonnes of peas to China between March and September, according to Pulse Canada, which shows how quickly volume returns once a duty lifts.
Canada's total exports to China grew 31.4% year on year in the first half of 2026, reaching CAD 21.5 billion, according to Global Affairs Canada figures reported by RealAgriculture. The relief is partial: canola oil still carries 100% and Canadian pork 25%.
For seafood, the two-year runway is the headline. Before this week, a Canadian crab or lobster shipper pricing a 2027 contract was working against a duty that could reappear on 1 January. That uncertainty is now pushed past the next two Lunar New Year buying windows, which fall in February 2027 and January 2028.
What It Means for Buyers
China is the premium destination for whole cooked crab and live lobster in Asia, and Canada is one of the few origins that can supply both at scale. Keeping that channel duty-free through 2028 does two things to the wider crab market.
First, it hardens the Chinese bid for premium crab. Canadian snow crab and lobster arrive in Shanghai and Guangzhou without the 25% handicap they would otherwise carry, so importers there can pay more at origin and still hold their margin. That bid competes directly with Russian king and snow crab for the same banquet and gifting demand.
Second, it changes the arithmetic for anyone selling swimming crab or surimi-based crab products into Chinese processing. When real crab is cheaper to land, processors buy more of it. Crab sticks and other surimi lines do not disappear in a strong crab market, but they lose the price advantage that a 25% duty on the real thing used to hand them.
Buyers outside China should read this as an allocation signal rather than a price signal. Canadian crab that might have moved to the United States or Japan at a discount now has a cleaner route into China. Expect Canadian sellers to hold offers firm through the first quarter and to favour buyers who can take mixed loads.
The relief is also explicitly temporary. It ends in 2028 and can be reviewed before then, so it supports two-year contracts, not five-year ones. Anyone building a Chinese crab programme on the assumption that this is now permanent is reading one meeting as a policy.
What to Watch
The Carney-Xi meeting on the sidelines of APEC in Shenzhen on 18 and 19 November, where both governments are expected to push the arrangement further.
Whether the suspended 25% becomes a permanent elimination, which would reset the baseline for Canadian crab pricing.
Canadian snow crab and lobster landings for the 2027 season, the physical limit on how much duty-free volume exists to sell.
China's treatment of canola oil and pork, still dutiable, as a read on how far the thaw actually goes.
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This article was researched and drafted with the assistance of AI and is published for general information only. It does not constitute trading, pricing, or investment advice, and readers should verify all figures against the original sources linked above before making commercial decisions. Content on this page is partly AI-generated. Easy Seafood makes no warranty as to its accuracy or completeness.
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