[Publication] Role and impact of China on world fisheries and aquaculture

Finally, the study suggests a series of recommendations focusing on how to best protect the EU against unfair global competition practices:

1. To develop an appropriate strategy to respond to China’s increasing domination of global fishmeal supplies, and to secure EU access to this important resource.
2. With a view to the future, to encourage EU seafood firms to seek primary processing partners outside China, e.g., focusing upon partners in other developing countries with capable but more cost-effective work forces (e.g., Vietnam, Cambodia, South Asia as well as Latin American or African alternatives).
3. To protect EU access to fishing opportunities, considering China’s expanding impact on access to fish stocks of interest to the EU, e.g., tuna, particularly in the Pacific and within the EEZ of Islands in the Western Pacific.
4. To encourage the Member States to refrain from negotiating individual agreements and to instead focus on cooperation with the EU’s central institutions.
5. To call for more transparency and reliable information on fishing activity and fisheries agreements of Chinese DWF at bilateral and global level.
6. To support and provide funding of civil society organisations investigating and reporting the activities of actors who prefer to operate in the dark.
7. To ensure an adequate implementation of the existing EU legislation (e.g., IUU Regulation, Due Diligence Directive). Amongst other benefits, this will contribute to implementing an adequate traceability system; to ensuring responsible fishing practices, to improving the safety at sea and labour conditions on fishing vessels, and to enhancing accurate reporting of catch.
8. To ensure a rule-based global system that considers the divergent interests of all parties is in place to regulate international ocean affairs and economic activities, including fisheries.
9. To ensure an effective implementation of international agreements on safety at sea of fishing vessels (Cape Town Agreement – IMO) and labour conditions on fishing vessels (ILO C188); and the negotiation of the agreement on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction would also enhance a fair competition between China and the EU and contribute to the protection of the Ocean.
10. To strengthen the monitoring, control and surveillance units of the Department of Fisheries (or equivalent agencies) of the countries with which the EU has signed fisheries agreements, and thus to strengthen their capacity to enforce fisheries control.
11. In interactions with Chinese negotiators, to point out that China’s central government has proclaimed an ‘Ecological Century’ and insists on international cooperation leading to mutual benefits. This proclamation excludes the predatory practices that lead to unfair competition. Fisheries agreements and contracts should not lead to increased exploitation of fully or overexploited stock. The EU, through the appropriate agency, should fund EU and/or other scientific groups capable of assessing the state of targeted stocks of countries in the Global South to determine the level of exploitation.
12. The above point would also support the dialogue with China about the overfishing problem in the South Sea China; and about the need to reduce the Chinese subsidies for the distant water fleets that lead to unfair competition.