EU Reject Tanzania Offer To Restart Tuna Fishing Negotiations ff

The European Union (EU) has rejected a proposal by Tanzania to restart negotiations on the agreement on tuna fishing zone beyond the 12 nautical miles from the latter's coast.

Saleh Pamba, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, told that Tanzania refused to sign the agreement because of the minimal benefits it was going to receive from the EU compared with the 8,000 tons of tuna fish that will be harvested.

In December 2005, the EU had submitted a proposal to the Tanzania government concerning the conclusion of the agreement between them on fishing in Tanzania’s fishing zone. They initiated a tuna agreement that was however never implemented because of Tanzania’s internal constitutional problems.

Following the agreement, the EU was to contribute a fixed amount of euros 600,000 per year to cover a catch weight of 8,000 tons of fish annually.

Euro 390,000 per year of the contribution was to be earmarked for the financing of control and surveillance, institutional support and development of local small-scale fisheries.

Laurent Benhamou, press officer on agriculture and Fisheries to the EU Secretary-General said that the Union was reluctant “in that case to restart the negotiation process”. Mr. Benhamou said, Indeed EU never intended to fish in the Tanzanian waters without authorization nor does it intend to sanction Tanzania for failure to reach a deal. He said in a statement, “A withdrawal now would mean that the process will have to start from scratch but the Commission will be reluctant in that case to restart the negotiation process because Tanzania has withdrawn twice from the process.”

Mr. Pamba said the EU wanted to be granted licenses for 39 tuna seiners and 31 surface long-liners to fish for a period of three years in which the licenses were to be granted to more than five European countries. The tuna seiners were to be allocated to France, 16 licenses; Spain, 22 licenses and Italy one license. Surface long-liners, which have been prohibited in Tanzania coastal waters, were to be allocated to Spain, 27 licenses and Portugal, four licenses. He said that the other contentious issue is that Tanzania has refused to allow the EU to control and do surveillance and monitoring on its fishing sites. The EU also wanted an exclusive clause prohibiting any private license or other arrangement by Tanzania with individual EU ship owners. “For these reasons, the government has directed the ministry to restart another round of negotiation with the EU for the benefit of Tanzania,” said Mr. Pamba.

The refusal by Tanzania was also necessitated by the agreement in which the EU was to transfer the license applications from any other member state if the license application from the five member states does not cover all the fishing opportunities covered by the protocol.

Neema Kambona, spokesperson for the EU Delegation in Tanzania, told the press that “the said amounts of money are fixed, whether there is any catch or not and a variable amount depending on the catch.” Ms Kambona said, “This is the fixed tranche only. There is a variable tranche that is dependent on the actual catch. The conditions are similar to that of other countries in the region.” She referred to Mauritius, Mozambique and the Seychelles.

According to the EU Delegation in Tanzania, the absence of an agreement would mean that the status quo remains whereby fishing vessels, including European vessels, acquire private licenses from the government of Tanzania on flat rate payment. “We are not sure whether these payments go to Zanzibar and the Mainland separately. As a consequence, fishing is not regulated, boats fish wherever they want and even if they come close or enter the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) nobody notices,” she said.

This would be the third time in five years in which the negotiation between the EU and Tanzania fails due to non-satisfaction of the conditions of the agreement.

In the absence of the agreement, foreign vessels will continue to purchase individual tuna licenses from the Tanzanian authorities costing approximately $18,000 per vessel per year. Under these private license arrangements, there are no quotas and no catch limits for each fishing vessel. About 70-100 such licenses are issued each year, but because fisheries is not a union issue, the Mainland and Zanzibar continue to issue their own fishing licenses for the same EEZ. Indications are that Zanzibar issues roughly half of the total licenses granted yearly. It is thought that approximately 40 per cent of the vessels fishing for tuna in Tanzania’s EEZ originate from the EU.