President Trump tweets about Maine lobster, orders financial help for industry

WASHINGTON, D.C. (WGME) - President Donald Trump is directing his administration to explore options to financially help the Maine lobster industry.

According to the Presidential Memo, the Secretary of Agriculture is to "consider including the United States lobster industry and other segments of the United States seafood industry in any future assistance provided to mitigate the effects of China’s retaliatory trade practices."

The directive is similar to trade offsets to help Midwestern farmers hurt by trade policies, which have added up to approximately $25 billion.

President Trump said retaliatory Chinese tariffs have hit the Maine lobster industry particularly hard.

From 2015 to 2018, American lobster was the most valuable single seafood species harvested in the United States, with Maine accounting for approximately 80 percent of that value each year.

American lobsters currently face tariffs of 35%-37%, according to the memo.

President Trump is also asking for the value of monthly Maine and other United States lobster exports to China.

The memo issued Wednesday evening was followed by a tweet from the president.

President Trump met with representatives of the commercial fishing industry when visiting Maine earlier this month. During that visit he signed an executive order opening up a national monument off the Gulf of Maine to commercial fishing.

The 5,000 square miles of ocean was designated as the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument and closed to fishing by President Obama in 2016.