Summarize and humanize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in EnglishFrom the icy harbors of Maine to the tropical waters around American Samoa, our commercial fishermen have long fed our nation, sustained our coastal communities, and defended our food security. Yet, both the Obama and Biden administrations have treated these warriors of the sea as expendable.This week, President Donald Trump took decisive action to reverse this trend with two executive orders that together form the foundation of an America First Fishing Policy.One ends the shutdown of nearly half a million square miles of US waters in the Pacific — waters vital to American Samoa’s economy. The other targets a deep swamp of over-regulations that now sacrifice our own fisherman on the altar of foreign competition, as well as a flood of unfairly traded seafood imports responsible for gutting our domestic fleets.In 2009, President George W. Bush created the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument. In 2014, President Barack Obama recklessly expanded the size of the monument, thereby cutting off commercial fishing across nearly 500,000 square miles.And in the wake of Obama’s overreach, the law of unintended consequences kicked in with a vengeance.While US commercial fishermen have been effectively barred from America’s own offshore Exclusive Economic Zones (the jurisdiction extending 200 nautical miles from America’s shores), illegal, unreported, and unregulated poaching by foreign fleets — particularly from China — has skyrocketed.Meanwhile, Samoan vessels have been forced to travel farther, spend more, and compete in international waters against subsidized, unregulated fleets from China, along with Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. On Thursday, President Trump signed an executive order to reopen the waters for US commercial fishing. Tuna-related products make up virtually the entire export economy of American Samoa, making this industry not just economically vital, but existential for the territory’s future.This has had devastating consequences for American Samoa. Tuna fishing and processing are the economic backbone of American Samoa. Roughly 5,000 jobs — direct and indirect — are tied to the tuna industry, representing more than 25 percent of the local workforce.The StarKist cannery in Pago Pago — one of the largest tuna processing facilities in the world — is the territory’s largest private employer and the anchor of a vast supply chain that includes local fishing vessels, offloading crews, cold storage facilities, packaging operations, and transport services. Tuna-related products make up virtually the entire export economy of American Samoa, making this industry not just economically vital, but existential for the territory’s future.President Joe Biden had every opportunity to right this wrong. Despite repeated pleas from Congresswoman Uifa’atali Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen of American Samoa, Biden chose not to.President Trump’s first executive order changes all that. It formally reopens the monument waters around the Pacific Remote Islands to commercial fishing by US-flagged vessels. Chinese and other foreign poachers will be kept at bay. In addition, President Trump’s second executive order will promptly resolve this paradox: While the US controls over four million square miles of prime fishing grounds, nearly 90 percent of seafood on our shelves is now imported while our seafood trade deficit has soared to over $20 billion.This second order will streamline — and steamroll — federal overregulation, which has resulted in over-restrictive catch limits, the selling of our fishing grounds to foreign offshore wind companies, inaccurate and outdated fisheries data, and delayed adoption of modern technology. Peter Navarro (left) is the Senior Counselor for Trade and Manufacturing. Under previous regulations, commercial fishing was banned within Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, which spans half a million miles in the Pacific Ocean, in order to conserve the wildlife present.President Trump has directed Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to ‘immediately consider suspending, revising, or rescinding regulations that overly burden America’s commercial fishing, aquaculture, and fish processing industries at the fishery-specific level.’Within 30 days, Secretary Lutnick will also identify the most heavily overregulated fisheries requiring action and appropriately reduce the regulatory burden on them. In tandem, Lutnick will work with Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins to develop and implement an America First Seafood Strategy to promote production, marketing, sale, and export of US fishery and aquaculture products and strengthen domestic processing capacity.As for the long-running problem of unfair trade practices, foreigners flood our markets with cheap, low-quality seafood produced under conditions that would be illegal here at home. Their fleets operate with massive government subsidies — for fuel, vessel construction, and access fees — and rely on labor practices that range from exploitative to outright criminal.China, in particular, abuses its fishermen, beating them if mistakes are made, and confiscates their passports, forcing them to stay on board. China has also press-ganged North Korean labor.This is not fair competition — it’s economic warfare.US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer will immediately initiate a Section 301 investigation that examines the unfair trade practices of major seafood-producing nations. As with the historic Trump China tariffs, America’s USTR will take all appropriate measures.American fishermen have proven that we can harvest responsibly and conserve marine ecosystems at the same time. If overzealous environmental activists had it their way, large swaths of American waters would remain closed forever. Our domestic fleets would shrink. Our stores would fill with filthy imported seafood of unknown origin. Our food security would weaken.That’s not the future we choose. We chose fish, baby, fish.
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