SF Zoo Says It’s On Track for Pandas Since ‘There’s No Tariffs on Endangered Species’

Could a plan to bring giant pandas to San Francisco be the latest victim of President Trump’s tariff policy?

Luckily for the city’s zoo, executive director Tanya Peterson doesn’t think so.

Since last April, San Francisco has been on a quest — spearheaded by then-Mayor London Breed — to raise the funds and goodwill necessary to bring a pair of giant pandas from China to its struggling zoo.

Despite backlash from other city leaders over the costly effort and questions about the San Francisco Zoo’s competence, the plan has continued forward. At Thursday’s Recreation and Parks Commission meeting, Peterson said the pandas are expected to be on exhibit by this time next year.

She doesn’t seem to believe that Trump’s escalating trade war with China will jeopardize the deal, which isn’t a sale but a flexing of “panda diplomacy” — China’s longtime practice of giving or lending the endangered animals to foreign zoos in exchange for hefty fees.

“It’s safe to say at this point, there’s no tariffs on endangered species,” Peterson told commissioners.

The pandas will be on loan to the city from China for three years, with an annual fee believed to be about $1 million. However, it’s not entirely clear whether that cost could be taxed under Trump’s tariff plan.

Still, Peterson said that during her recent meeting with a Chinese delegation, “everything was very positive regarding our discussions about the giant panda; there was no discussion by any country of the tariffs.”

That’s good news for the zoo, since looming tension and import taxes between the U.S. and China are far from the first wrenches to be thrown into Breed’s ambitious plan.

In order to fundraise the necessary $25 million for the project — which will pay for the annual fees to China along with the cost of facility renovations and supplies to care for the animals — Breed asked the Board of Supervisors last April to allow her to seek private donations. City ethics regulations usually bar public officials from privately fundraising.

The board ultimately gave Breed the exemption, but not before pointing out that the price tag was just slightly higher than a proposed $24 million budget cut to family services provided by nonprofits, which was later reversed, and that the request came as the city faces a budget shortfall of more than $800 million.

In October, a report by the San Francisco Animal Control and Welfare Commission called the zoo “unsafe for visitors and animals,” prompting the Board of Supervisors to approve a financial and performance audit at the end of last year. The zoo’s deputy director, Vitus Leung, told the San Francisco Standard at the time that the bad press could upend the panda deal.

The plan faced another test when its backer, Breed, lost her reelection bid to Mayor Daniel Lurie. He’s said he is excited to take his kids to see the animals, but told the San Francisco Chronicle in December that he was “assessing what it will take to realize this opportunity.”

Still, the zoo is forging ahead. Peterson said Thursday that it has begun an estimated $8 million renovation on its old lion house, which it plans to turn into a bamboo-filled oasis for the pandas.

The hope is that the pandas’ arrival would raise revenue and visitorship for the zoo. The last time two pandas visited the zoo — for a shorter three-month stint in 1984 — they drew more than 260,000 visitors, roughly four times the average attendance at that time, according to city records.

Much could change in a year — both in San Francisco and in U.S.-China relations — but if all goes to plan, the bears will once again be on display over 40 years later.