Residents in a tiny fishing town in the newly renamed Gulf of America are celebrating President Trump’s controversial tariff plan after their economy was ruined by cheap imports.
Jeremy Zirlott, a commercial shrimper in Bayou La Batre in Alabama, said he could ‘hardly believe it’ when he saw Trump announce tariffs on imports from around the world last week.
But while global markets reacted in horror to the plan, Zirlott told the Wall Street Journal that to him, it ‘seemed too good to be true.’
Trump’s tariff plan will impose heavy levies on nations that export the majority of America’s shrimp, including a hefty 46 percent tariff on Vietnamese imports and 32 percent on Indonesia.
These same imports had decimated the economy in Bayou La Batre in recent years, as the small fishing town couldn’t compete with the influx of cheap farmed shrimp from overseas.
Income and sales tax revenue in the town fell around 40 percent between 2021 and 2024, and the town’s Mayor Henry Barnes said he felt helpless as he watched the area’s main industry falter.
‘People were looking to me for answers, and I didn’t have them,’ he said. ‘The city can’t put tariffs on foreign seafood.’
Locals say they now have their hopes up for an economic boom as tariffs may force retailers to buy from American sources.
Residents in the tiny fishing town of Bayou La Batre, Alabama in the Gulf of America are celebrating President Trump’s controversial tariff plan after their economy was ruined by cheap imports
Jeremy Zirlott, a commercial shrimper in Bayou La Batre, said he could ‘hardly believe it’ when he saw Trump announce tariffs on imports from around the world last week, feeling it was ‘too good to be true’
The small town rejoiced Trump’s controversial tariff plan that he announced Wednesday which slapped hefty levies on foreign imports
More than 90 percent of shrimp consumed in the US each year is currently imported, according to the U.S. International Trade Commission.
Barnes said he welcomed Trump regaining the White House in November’s election because he hoped the president’s America First ideology could save the US shrimping industry.
The mayor wrote Trump a letter after the election pleading for the new administration to impose tariffs on imported shrimp.
‘We could come back the way it used to be,’ he said.
Barnes said the town used to be a bustling hub of activity when shrimping season began each year, and recalled lines of boats and trucks filling the streets in years past.
Today, ‘you couldn’t hardly walk across the street waiting on traffic,’ he told the Wall Street Journal.
‘Now, you could pretty much crawl across it, because there’s nothing going on.’
Zirlott said he was almost forced to shut down his commercial shrimping company last year due to the financial struggles in the industry.
Pictured: Jeremy Zirlott and his wife, Kim
Bayou La Batre Mayor Henry Barnes said he hopes Trump’s heavy tariffs on major shrimp importing nations could revive his town’s economy, saying: ‘We could come back the way it used to be’
Bayou La Batre’s economy relied heavily on shrimping, but in recent years it couldn’t compete with the influx of cheap farmed shrimp from overseas. Income and sales tax revenue in the town fell around 40 percent between 2021 and 2024, the town’s mayor said
He said his family has worked in shrimp farming since the 1700s in the small Gulf town, and has no regrets despite the long days at sea and grueling lifestyle.
‘I pity people that go through life and don’t get the excitement of a big catch,’ he said.
He recalled that imported shrimp started becoming an issue in the area around 20 years ago, and many of his competitors went out of business as they couldn’t compete.
While he survived through marketing his shrimp as higher quality and selling directly to wholesalers, Zirlott said the town was decimated in 2021 when import prices dropped dramatically.
This meant it was far more difficult for domestic shrimp farmers to keep up, and according to the WSJ, domestic US shrimpers on average went from operating at a 5.1 percent profit in 2021 to a 3.7 percent loss in 2023.
‘I wound up with more product in the freezer than I ever had,’ Zirlott said.
