Canada's minister of international trade diversification is reassuring the seafood industry that retaliatory tariffs from China are unlikely even as relations sour over the arrest of an executive with Chinese tech giant Huawei.

The seafood sector has already seen it happen to a neighbour.

Last summer, China slapped a 25 per cent tariff on American seafood in an escalating trade war with U.S. President Donald Trump. The duty almost immediately priced Maine lobster out of the Chinese market.

Could that happen to Canadian fishermen and shippers who now count on China as a critical market?

"We continue to believe that the alignment of interests between Canada and China will reduce the possibility of that happening," Jim Carr said Tuesday in Halifax.

'A difficult period in the relationship'

Canada filled the void left by Maine with lobster exports to China — mostly from Nova Scotia. Those exports nearly doubled between 2017 and 2018.

"We've been doing business with China for decades and we will continue to do business with China. We're going through a difficult period in the relationship," said Carr.

The minister was in Nova Scotia as part of a roadshow to promote the new Trans-Pacific trade deal, of which China is not a signatory.

The deal — officially called the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership — is being welcomed by companies from Nova Scotia who export to Asia.

Some of them were invited Tuesday to hear from Carr and Canadian trade commissioners to Pacific countries.

One of those companies, Great Village-based Ocean Sonics, makes underwater listening devices known as hydrophones that are used by researchers, the military and oil companies.

"One of the issues that we have is that we can't actually tell users how much they're going to pay for a product or system because of the various customs issues they need to deal with," said co-owner Mark Wood.

Mark Wood is co-owner of Ocean Sonics. (Steve Lawrence/CBC)

Wood said the 2015 free trade deal with South Korea negotiated by the Stephen Harper government is already working for his company.

"We're finding now that that those shipments are a lot more transparent. The paperwork is much simpler. And so Korea is ... almost like sending to the United States. It's a pretty straightforward process," he said.

Wood said his company has been caught up in the China-U.S. tariff war.

'We're still paying Trump's duty'

One of the components in its hydrophones is made in China, and the Chinese producer uses a U.S. customs broker.

"Because of that, we have to pay, I think, a 25 per cent duty on that. So even though we're purchasing directly from China, we're still paying Trump's duty," he said.

In recent days, with trade talks progressing, Trump delayed a tariff hike on Chinese imports set for March.

The new Pacific trade agreement will eventually eliminate up to 99 per cent of tariffs into Japan, Vietnam and eight other countries bordering the Pacific. The first tariffs came off on Dec. 30, 2018.

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