Image © From Bait to Plate – Tracking the Chinese Fishing Ships Linked to Rights and Labour Abuses at Sea

Legislators have reached a consensus that the Commission will create a database aimed at facilitating the enforcement of this regulation. This database will compile reliable and consistently updated data concerning forced labor risks, including inputs from international bodies like the International Labour Organization (ILO). Its primary objective is to assist the Commission and national competent authorities in evaluating potential breaches of this regulation.

The interim agreement also establishes explicit criteria to guide both the Commission and national competent authorities in evaluating the probability of violations of this regulation, including the scale and severity of the suspected forced labour. This approach is strongly supported by Europêche.

The agreement reached by the co-legislators also establishes criteria clarifying the leading authority in investigations. The Commission will lead investigations outside the EU territory, while within the territory of a member state, the competent authority of that member state will take the lead in investigations where risks are identified.                     

Daniel Voces, managing Director of Europêche, declared: “The EU’s battle against forced labor is evolving into a decisive new phase, characterized by a comprehensive array of legal measures to eradicate exploitative labor practices. Together with the IUU policy and the ILO Work in Fishing Convention, the new law will undoubtedly help sustain dignified employment and upholding fundamental rights within the fisheries sector worldwide. The EU fishing sector stands ready to assist the Commission and Member States in their efforts to combat forced labour when and where necessary”. He continued: “ The new law will offer European consumers even greater confidence in purchasing products that are ethically and sustainably sourced.”

Press contact: 

Rosalie Tukker, Europêche Senior Policy Advisor +32 2 230 48 48 rosalie.tukker@europeche.org

EP Press Release – Forced Labour Trilogue

The Council of the EU will shortly approve a regulation setting autonomous tariff quotas (ATQs) for certain fishery products for the years 2021-2023. The ATQ regulation covers species such as tuna, Alaska pollack, cod, flatfish or shrimp for which a relatively high volume can be imported from non-EU countries at a reduced or zero-duty tariff. The fishing industry represented by Europêche and EAPO believe that ATQs are being used in many cases with the sole purpose of getting access to cheap and low-standard fish from foreign fleets which in turn puts pressure on EU producers’ prices and employment. Both organisations call on the EU Council of Ministers to reduce the amount of imported duty-free fish to at least levels set in the European Commission’s proposal¹.

Every two or three years, the EU revise the volume of fish for which custom duties are suspended or reduced, taking into consideration the utilisation rate, the need for a level playing field between EU and non-EU producers, value added and other trade preferences. Following a rather balanced proposal from the Commission, the Council of the EU is significantly increasing tariff quotas and even introducing new species that can benefit from tax derogations. This has not come as a surprise to the fishing industry since, from the beginning, there has been a constant trend to increase the amount of tons exempted from import duties in the EU. While in 1992, only 6 species representing 43,000 tons were granted reduced import duties, the EU will grant zero duty access to more than 20 species representing 810,000 tons, compared to 750,000 tons in the previous regulation.

The EU catching sector is not opposed to a rational tariff free setting for certain fishery products that are not sufficiently produced in the EU. However, in light of the negative socio-economic consequences of ATQs for the EU fishing industry, this instrument cannot be intended to foment imports from non-sustainable sources nor to put pressure on EU producers’ prices.

Javier Garat, President of Europêche, declared: “The same story repeats revision after revision. The Council only listens to some EU processing companies that want to get access to cheap fish from non-EU countries regardless of the origin or way of production. The increases in volume of duty-free fish works to the detriment of EU producers who have to comply with the highest standards of sustainability. Why demanding so much to our fishermen when the EU opens a back door for non-EU products without even questioning their sustainability? Only yesterday, the Council committed to ensuring a fair income and strong support for primary producers under the farm to fork strategy. The new ATQ Regulation is therefore a step in the wrong direction. The EU should work towards achieving a true level playing field in practice, and not just on paper, between EU produced and third country produced seafood.

Mr Pim Visser, President of EAPO, declared: “Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, fishermen are facing extremely low prices and the quantities of unsold catches for certain species is rising. Already 60% of the fish consumed in the EU comes from outside our borders. Subsidising additional fish imports from non-EU countries would not only increase Union market’s dependence on fish imports but also put further pressure on prices and leave our companies out of business. Fishers feel abandoned by an EU that puts so much emphasis on the sustainability of EU products but so little on imported fish.”  

[1] Proposal for a COUNCIL REGULATION opening and providing for the management of autonomous Union tariff quotas for certain fishery products for the 2021-2023 period COM(2020) 322 final

Press contacts:

Daniel Voces de Onaíndi, Managing Director of Europêche: +32 2 230 48 48 daniel.voces@europeche.org

Emiel Brouckaert, Secretary General of EAPO: +32 59 43 20 05  info@eapo.com

EP and EAPO Press Release – ATQs

Subsidised tuna exports are a trade practice that is not only breaching World Trade Organization (WTO) rules but also threatening sustainable ocean governance. The alleged interventions by the Chinese government undermine free competition and require urgent action from the EU to re-establish a level playing field in terms of tuna trade flows.

Europêche strongly feels that any harmful subsidy or tax relief granted to Chinese exporters should receive full attention from the European Commission. Indeed, the United States has issued already in April 2016 a formal request to the WTO asking for China to clarify fishery subsidies and bring them in line with WTO rules. However, this process seems to be far from completed since, according to Europêche, processing and export of tuna loins might come to Europe on unfair terms, being dumped or subsidised.  

Europêche is alerted by the increasing import volumes of tuna loins flooding the EU market at low prices. These low prices are made possible on the one hand by the confronted subsidies from the Chinese government to their producers and on the other hand by EU import tariff derogations granted for 30,000-ton tuna loins per year. Furthermore, a recent study^[1] reveals that China has expanded its uncontrolled distant-water fishing fleet to the point that China is threatening food security and the economies of coastal communities around the globe[2]. According to this research, this has been possible thanks to tax exemptions, fuel subsidies and ship construction subsidies which are hardly ever made public by the Chinese authorities. Europêche argues that Chinese seafood products therefore compete unfairly with seafood produced sustainably by the EU fishing fleet but also with seafood suppliers from developing countries that export to the EU market under preferential market access conditions.

Javier Garat, President of Europêche, declared: “Given the strategic and highly competitive nature of the tuna market we urge the European Commission to initiate an anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigation with a view to impose as soon as possible countervailing measures against tuna exports to the EU”. Mr Garat concluded: “It is not acceptable that countries which are linked to IUU fishing and serious labour abuses benefit from preferential market access; it should be rather the opposite. The EU should work towards achieving a true level playing field between EU produced and third country produced seafood. Autonomous tariff quotas for tuna loins at present are rewarding those who have turned a blind eye towards the sustainability of fish stocks and fair treatment of people”. 

[1] Gutiérrez, M., Daniels, A., Jobbins, G., Gutiérrez Almazor, G., Montenegro, C. (2020). China’s distant-water fishing fleet: Scale, impact and governance. ODI, via https://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/resource-documents/chinesedistantwaterfishing_web_1.pdf

[2] Urbina, I. (2020). How China’s Expanding Fishing Fleet Is Depleting the World’s Oceans. Yale School of the Environment, via https://e360.yale.edu/features/how-chinas-expanding-fishing-fleet-is-depleting-worlds-oceans

Urbina, I. (2020). The deadly secret of China’s invisible armada. Outlaw Ocean Project and NBC News, via https://www.nbcnews.com/specials/china-illegal-fishing-fleet/index.html

Press contacts:

Daniel Voces, Managing Director of Europêche: +32.2.230.48.48 daniel.voces@europeche.org

EP Press Release – Anti-dumping complaint