By Atuna.com
The European Parliament has signed off on a deal allowing Papua New Guinea to export its tuna products duty-free into Europe, regardless the origin of the fish.
It’s the only country in the world to be granted special treatment in the European Union’s fishery sector that allows the country to export processed tuna products, of which the fish originates from tuna vessels carrying any national flag. Normally the duty free rule for tuna imports within the EU is only available to selected developing countries that have vessels which match the so-called Rules of Origin, by which these vessels must carry the same flag as the country the fish is processed in, or exported from to the EU.
This special duty status will represent an important boost to the PNG tuna industry – which will give it excellent access to large volume of tuna raw material. The deal excludes tuna delivered by IUU vessels.
The Spanish organization ANFACO has long disputed this deal, and has heavily lobbied to stop it. Fears of ANFACO are that the deal will negatively affect the EU-based tuna processing industry.
In return for this special duty status, PNG has agreed to gradually open its markets to EU products.
Ten percent of the world’s tuna is caught in PNG waters, but most of the catch is exported overseas to be processed, the EU being the main destination
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