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BELMOPAN, Belize, May 30 2016 – Officials from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the United States have held talks on issues affecting trade between them.
A statement from the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) said that the major issued discussed during 7th Annual Meeting of the CARICOM-US Trade and Investment Council in Washington last week, is the threat of a lawsuit by US-based NGOs over the harvesting of queen conch for trade.
CRFM said the threat of the lawsuit is of great concern to the region, which exports an estimated US$185 million worth of conch meat annually to the US.
In February this year, WildEarth Guardians and Friends of Animals notified the US authorities of their intention to sue the Department of Commerce, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Marine Fisheries Service / NOAA Fisheries, and their officers and directors over the government’s decision in 2014 not to list the queen conch as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
The CRFM, which was represented at the meeting by its executive director, Milton Haughton, maintained that the petition is unjustified, as it is based on outdated and erroneous information.
A listing that the species is endangered would result in an outright ban, while a listing that it is threatened would lead to more stringent export regulations, among other measures.
The NGO, which wants to challenge the decision of the US federal authorities, is reputed to have a 77 per cent success rate in lawsuits against the US government.
In studying the impact of litigation by the NGO, US researchers, Dr. Ryan M. Yonk of the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice at the Southern Utah University and Dr. Randy T. Simmons of the Department of Economics and Finance at Utah State University, found that the litigation could jeopardize industries representing over US$3 billion in local economies.
However, US authorities have indicated that they will defend their position on the queen conch. CARICOM States will, meanwhile, be monitoring this situation closely.
At the Washington meeting, the parties also discussed US measures to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and their potential impact on our region.
A Presidential Task Force was established two years ago to develop recommendations for “a Comprehensive Framework to Combat Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing and Seafood Fraud.”
CARICOM notes that the new measures being introduced to combat IUU fishing and seafood fraud could have significant negative consequences for the export of fish and seafood from CARICOM to the US market, since importers in the USA would be required to implement administrative systems to certify that fish and fishery products entering the US market are not from IUU sources.
“However, the measures being implemented by the United States could also create opportunities for fish and fish products exported from the region, by reducing the occurrence of IUU fishing in our region by third States and unfair competition,” the CRFM said.
It said that at the recent meeting,” CARICOM officials laid out both their concerns and expectations to the US representatives, including the need for support for fish traders and government fisheries departments so that they could make the necessary reforms to comply with the new US requirements for international trade”.
