Progress made on illegal fishing

The Thai government’s efforts to tackle illegal fishing in a bid to avoid trade sanctions from the European Union have not all been in the right direction, said a senior executive of a leading Thai seafood exporter.

Rittirong Boonmechote, president for the global shrimp business of Thai Union Group, said the government had made a serious attempt to solve the problem but “half of its efforts so far were |in the right direction, while the other half were not quite right”.

The Thai Union executive was speaking on sidelines of a global seafood expo held in Brussels this week, after an announcement from the EU on Tuesday that it had given Thailand, the world’s third-largest seafood exporter, six months to clean up its fishing industry or face a ban on fish imports.

“We would like to work with the government to provide support and information about what the foreign communities want from us,” he said.

Ruttirong Rittirong said the government had seriously tackled human-rights and human-trafficking problems and succeeded in registering as many as 1.6 million foreign labourers over the past six months. However, there had been a failure to work cohesively among different ministries, and to communicate its achievements to the international community.

Moreover, to ensure compliance with the EU’s policy on illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in terms of traceability, it should register all trawlers, not just the big boats.

“There has been no impact on trade yet. But all our customers have sent us very worrying signals that if [the problem] is not solved, they will turn to buying [seafood] from other countries,” he said.

Nopadol Gunavibool, head of the Thai mission to the EU and ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg, said the EU’s “yellow card” warning had nothing to do with Thailand’s political system.

“It has nothing to do with politics. It’s a technical aspect that if we make it all right, they can’t do anything to us,” he said.

Nopadol said no other government had made as much progress as the current military administration, which had finally succeeded in making an amendment to the fishery law that had been delayed for 15 years and had come up with a concrete strategy to solve the problem of illegal fishing.

“However, everything has occurred in the short period of the past six months, while the EU has been watching us since 2010, and its view is that over the past two years, we have not made sufficient improvements,” he said.

Nopadol said that if Thailand seriously tackles the problem, it should be able to get off the “yellow card” status by the six-month deadline.

“The EU [has lifted] its warning to the Philippines, which was given a red card twice in the past. [It has also lifted its warning to] South Korea, that had faced the yellow card three times over the past 18 months,” he said.

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