SOUTH AFRICAN DEEP-SEA TRAWLING INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 1005/2008—the Catch Certification Scheme for Fishery Products Imported from Third Countries.

A Private Sector View from South Africa

Introductory

• The issues at stake are serious for private sector operators depending on the European Trade for survival. • The private sector understands the inevitability the Regulation • commends and supports its objectives and will do anything to help to ensure that the smooth working of the certification system. • Business needs legitimate trade to continue unchanged and undisturbed come January2010 --- at no significant increase in cost to exporters. • • Business also wants a Regulation positively disposed to the development of trade with Europe Business does not want to be considered overcritical of EC1005/2008

CAUTIONARY

• the astounding diversity of commercial fisheries in ACP countries makes it extraordinarily difficult to arrive at a definitive private sector view • The background of present opinion • Capital intensive • medium to high tech • heavily reliant on European trade • sophisticated fisheries laws • good fisheries management • rigorous enforcement and compliance. • Appropriate prescription for small scale, and quasi-subsistence fisheries differ from industrial fisheries • The Regulation could also have been better crafted to meet the needs of artisanal sectors

SCOPE OF CONCERN

• Concerns focus on mechanics and legal issues • fishery products shall only be imported with a catch certificate validated by a competent authority related to (the responsible) fishing vessel(s) catching in accordance with applicable laws and containing all the information in Annex II .

• Article 12 together with the definition of illegal fishing poses a danger of enterprises being unable to comply with procedure or otherwise prejudiced • Other concerns have been tabled hopefully if the certification scheme is sorted they should all resolve in good time.

THE DIFFICULTY WITH TRACKING

• The mechanisms for 3rd Countries were largely inspired by RFMOs thus the Certification Scheme is well crafted to deal with iconic, high seas, IUU operations • RFMOs are not the norm - they account for a small part of trade in fishery products – the rest of the fishing world tends to rely on a diversity of much more complex business models • Advanced trading practice usually implies aggregation and disaggregation processes along the way from landing to exportation

perfect traceability inevitably unravels

• The Ship, the Trip and the Skipper mostly get lost in the wash but secure tracking still remains possible

THE DIFFICULTY WITH LAW

• It is acknowledged a great strength of the Regulation that it lets the laws and policies of trading partners apply to certification procedure. • When the definition of illegality in EC1005/2008 interacts with a rigorous local enforcement tradition strength may turn weakness. • Local law may or may not prevent a distinction being drawn between “illegal fishing” and “non-compliant fishing” whereas local practice will probably always do so • Failure of other legal systems to distinguish between grand and petty illegality leads to perverse outcomes under the best management regimes

CAN ANYTHING BE DONE?

• The role of the vessel and the skipper should be downgraded, radically so for the skipper, possibly by finding a way to reformulate Annex II • Tracing needs to be appropriate to the wider circumstances of fisheries - the “critical control point” approach of the existing European food safety system may prove a useful guideline • Competent Authorities administering quality fisheries management systems need discretion in issuing certificates for domestic enterprise • the concept of properly

regulated

fishing needs to be given more weight in the implementation of the Regulation

CONCLUSIONS

• A certification scheme remains the best vehicle to ensure that fishery products traded into the EC are lawful. • The Regulation cannot be amended within any meaningful period individual Government and EC Authorities will have to work rapidly, flexibly and creatively with the tools at hand. • The tools seem limited to Subordinate Regulations, Interpretation and Exemptions - hopefully Annex II will benefit from betterment processes. • The probability of bilateral negotiation within the framework of EC 1005/2008 means that ACP countries will have opportunity to cooperate with the European Commission in shifting the Certification Scheme in the desired direction.

SOUTH AFRICAN DEEP-SEA TRAWLING INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION

THANK YOU

Aggregation etc - a Practical Example

• Italian consumers love sleeved hake loins retailed in cartons of 400 grams • This cut is derived from a process of filleting, skinning and portioning the fish into six other cuts destined for different markets • 35% of the landing is consigned to other product lines, the rest is geared for cutting – only fish over 600 grams go into cutting • 2% of the landing is recoverable in loin form • This fleet achieves 7 landings per week consisting of 40 tons average raw material per landing. • it will require approx 900 tons of landed fish to fill an 18 ton container consigned to a single customer • 900 tons approximates to 23 landings put into storage vessel by vessel over nearly a month • 23 catch certificates are required for that one container let alone all the other containers holding the other parts of the same fish • It is observed that from the time of being caught until the day it arrives in Italy all the fish has belonged to and been in the custody of one person