Sri Lanka to resume EU fish exports by July, says SEASL
View(s):Sri Lanka will be able to resume tuna and chilled swordfish exports to the European Union (EU) by July this year once the final decision to revoke the ban would be made before this time, the local fish exporters grouping said in a media release on Friday. The EU announced on Thursday that it had agreed to lift the ban on fish exports to its member states. The European Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Karmenu Vella has stated in an official media communiqué that the Red Card issued against Sri Lanka will be lifted as it has significantly improved its national fisheries governance.
He had stated, “It also shows that we can bring important players onboard: Sri Lanka has now a robust legal and policy framework to fight illegal fishing activities. As the fight against IUU (Illegal Unreported and Unregulated) fishing is part of the EU’s commitment towards sustainability and good ocean governance, each third country that comes onboard is an asset.” The Seafood Exporters Association of Sri Lanka (SEASL) stated in a media release that other technical details to follow in getting the ban revoked would be to implement the draft commission decision on Sri Lanka reaching the administrative layers among other procedures that could take upto three months.
A working party on internal and external fisheries policy would consider the Draft Commission Implementing Decision on Sri Lanka in two weeks. However, endorsement of the proposal by each member state could take up to six weeks, the release said.
Finally, once a recommendation is made, the decision would go through two other levels called COREPER1 which is the Committee of the Permanent Representatives of the Governments of the Member States to the EU and Council levels, it was noted. Spearheaded by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe who addressed the EU in January last year, Sri Lanka fast-tracked to get the ban lifted on its fish exports as soon as the new administration assumed office by establishing a steering committee in this regard.
SEASL noted that budget allocations were made for the establishment of Vessel Monitoring Centre, Recruitment and Training of new personnel, introduction of necessary regulations and sanctions, awareness programmes that were continuously monitored for progress. The steering committee comprised all related stakeholders that included the private sector as well, the release said.
Sri Lanka is the second largest exporter of fresh tuna and chilled swordfish to the EU, which accounted for Euro 74 million of fisheries imports to Europe in 2013.
The ban hit over 192, 000 households and 222, 160 fishermen and women dependent on fishing as their livelihood and who lost over half their income. Exporters, the release noted started recovering only after a year with the new markets and some volume of raw material from Maldives and India to keep the buyers in EU satisfied. The ban on fish exports to the EU from Sri Lanka was implemented on January 15, 2015 having being issued the red card in December 2014 for being considered as a non-cooperating third country with a number of shortcomings like adequate legislation and monitoring of fishing activities. -(SD)