ACP Nations Want “Global Tuna Sourcing” Allowance In EPA ff

By Atuna

The Forum Fisheries Agency’s latest report affirmed that the African, Caribbean and Pacific States (ACP) met with the officials of the European Commission last month. The meetings were held during a period of two weeks. These talks were productive and agreements were reached on several minor details of the proposed comprehensive Economic Partnerships Agreements (EPA). However, there are important discrepancies on several key elements of the proposed Agreement.

From a fisheries’ perspective three important issues remain.

First, there is the need to avoid the imposition of additional conditions to the global sourcing rules. The original conditions required ACP States to report on why the flexibility is required, which species/ products are being applied for and an estimate of export volumes.

A report on the implementation of the global sourcing Rules of Origin is to be submitted to the European Commission no later than end-2010.

Second, there is a profound developmental need to extend global sourcing to other fish products, in particular fresh chilled and frozen fish ‘fillets’ and other products. This is of huge importance to those ACP nations that are unable to sustain tuna canning or loining plants, either due to economic constraints (e.g. small size, lack of potable water, etc) or resource constraints (e.g. the tuna purse seine fishery is not based in or near their EEZ). Finally, the specific terms of the Fisheries Chapter of the agreement are yet to be finalized.