EU ban on fish exports: SL fulfills 36 out of 57 conditions

Sri Lanka had fulfilled 36 out of 57 conditions set for it by the European Union for the lifting of the ban on fish exports to Europe, according to the Fisheries Department.

The EU ban on Sri Lankan fish exports was announced last October due to Sri Lanka’s failure to demon demonstrate that it sufficiently addressed illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

The ban took effect from 14 Jan. 2015.

The Fisheries Department yesterday said that it was confident of meeting the rest of the stipulations before the end of next month. The time period stipulated by the European Union for fulfilling these conditions ends on October 31.

European Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Maria Damanaki said that Sri Lanka had been warned in November 2012 to address EU concerns or face the consequences.

The installation of Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) was currently being implemented with more than half of the 1,600 deep-sea going vessels already having been installed with VMS.

Meanwhile, an EU Technical Evaluation Team would be visiting Sri Lanka from Oct. 05 to 09 to assess the ban, spokesperson of the Foreign Affairs Ministry said earlier.

According to the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Sri Lanka’s estimated loss of revenue since the European Union imposed the ban on the export of fishery products from here since January was approximately USD 75 million.

(Source: The Island)