Biden’s Leftover Trade Chaos Still Disrupting America’s Seafood Supply Chain

As President Donald Trump leads the United States back toward stability and strength, his administration is still forced to clean up the mess left behind by years of erratic and secretive Biden-era policies.

One example? A group of executives from one of Latin America’s largest seafood exporters still can’t set foot in the United States—not because they broke any laws, but because the Biden administration quietly revoked their visas without public explanation. The result: a key food supplier to the American market remains blocked from engaging with U.S. buyers, even as inflation and food insecurity remain pressing issues for millions of families.

The company, Negocios Industriales Real S.A. (NIRSA), is a vertically integrated Ecuadorian seafood powerhouse that has been exporting to the U.S. for decades. It employs over 8,000 people and ships thousands of metric tons of tuna and shrimp annually to American ports. Between June 2023 and April 2025 alone, NIRSA made more than 220 verified seafood shipments to the U.S. through partners like Global Trade Bridge Corp and Seafood Exchange of Florida Inc.

And yet, its executives remain blacklisted—still dealing with the consequences of the Biden administration’s opaque and unaccountable visa crackdown.

This isn’t some shady operator. NIRSA is a founding member of TUNACONS, a coalition of sustainability-minded seafood producers. Its facilities are among the most advanced in South America, and it adheres to rigorous environmental and traceability standards required by U.S. and European buyers. The company uses non-entangling nets, biodegradable gear, and onboard waste controls, and is actively pursuing carbon-neutral certification.

A report by The Federal Newswire exposed that the visa revocations were issued without formal charges, hearings, or justification. No press release. No public notice. Just silent, bureaucratic exile—a Biden hallmark.

What makes this more infuriating is that this wasn’t some one-off policy fluke. It was part of a broader pattern of arbitrary, backdoor decisions that punished allies, confused trade partners, and undermined American supply chains.

Under President Trump, transparency and strength in trade are the rule, not the exception.

Say what you will about Trump’s tariff battles or negotiations: his policies are radically transparent.

During the election, he said exactly what he was going to do when he was elected.

American workers and businesses could see what was coming. Trade partners were told the rules. That’s leadership.

Compare that to Biden’s shadow diplomacy. Ambiguous enforcement. Visa revocations with no rationale. Allies punished, while adversaries like China were coddled. NIRSA, one of the largest exporters of responsibly sourced tuna and shrimp to the U.S., was caught in the crosshairs of this failed vision. Ecuador’s tuna industry exported nearly 230,000 metric tons globally in 2023—much of it headed straight for U.S. grocery shelves.

And the U.S. needs that seafood. We import more than 70% of what we consume, and much of it comes from Latin America. Yet Biden-era bureaucrats hamstrung a compliant, sustainability-certified supplier with red tape, undermining the very supply chain families in Ohio, Florida, and Texas rely on to put food on the table.

While the Trump administration today works to rebuild confidence with international trade partners and reassert the America First vision, this lingering visa debacle is a reminder of just how chaotic things were under Biden. Policies with no public process. Allies frozen out. And no answers for the families left paying higher prices at the register.

Trump’s team must now decide how to unwind these holdover decisions, restore lawful, fair engagement with vetted international partners, and ensure that food security isn’t held hostage by political games of the past.

America is returning to a position of strength. But the damage done by the last administration’s reckless approach to trade won’t be cleaned up overnight. In the meantime, the American people deserve to know that the supply chains they depend on aren’t being sabotaged by the ghosts of a failed presidency.