Marine Harvest Will Resume Salmon Exports to China With Chinese, Norwegian Trade Relations Restored  Marine Harvest said it will resume shipping salmon to the Chinese market this year now that political tensions between Norway and China have eased. Marine Harvest’s Chief Executive Alf Helge Aarskog said he expects shipments to resume to the Chinese market sometime in the first or second quarter this year. In mid-December, diplomatic relations between Norway and China were normalized when the two countries signed a joint statement in Beijing. This eased tensions between the countries that dated back to 2010 when Norway gave a Nobel Prize to a Chinese dissident. Given the agreement signed in December and Marine Harvest’s decision to resume shipments, it’s possible for China’s market share for Norwegian salmon increase in 2017. The first chartered flight carrying live North American lobsters from Halifax to China landed at the Zhengzhou Xinzheng Int'l Airport in Zhengzhou, the capital of the central province of Henan. It took the plane 19 hours to fly its cargo of about 74 metric tons of live lobster to China. Two more chartered flights with lobsters are expected to land in China before the Chinese New Year on January 27. Meanwhile, China's Ministry of Finance announced a significant range of tariff reductions on seafood products, to take effect January 1, 2017. The principal beneficiaries of the tariff reduction will be companies in Russia, Canada, the US and Norway. The major reductions include H&G frozen cod and pollock. Our story includes a full table of the tariff reductions. In other news, A group of US senators led by Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski reintroduced the Improved National Monument Designation Process Act, a bill that if passed will require increased local input and state approval before national monuments can be designated on federal lands and waters. The law will require one of three points of criteria be met before any national monument can be declared on public land or within waters of the exclusive economic zone. "At this point, we have no choice but to reform the Antiquities Act to ensure that the people being impacted by these designations are heard and respected," Murkowski said. Finally, a report says the Canadian Food Inspection Agency expedited its approval of Aquabounty's genetically modified salmon eggs for export. Emails obtained by the CBC News said Aquabounty wanted inspectors to complete their testing since the eggs could start hatching and would be useless to customers. CFIA's chief regional inspector in Atlantic Canada, David Cameron said it is not unusual for companies to ask inspectors to reprioritize their testing schedules for export permits so they can meet deadlines.