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Tuna industry players seek access with Pacific nations - Sep 06
ADB Helps Papua New Guinea Play Bigger Role in Tuna Industry
ASEAN Expresses Strong Concern
U.S.-PAPUA NEW GUINEA RELATIONS
WORKING GROUP OF ASEAN TUNA AFF
PHILIPPINES, THAILAND CRITICAL OF EUROPEAN AND US TUNA IMPORT POLICIES
Menado and Davao, two gateways to the future
Fiji Bans Fishing in Traditional Grounds
ADB Helps Papua New Guinea Play Bigger Role in Tuna Industry
Papua New Guinea will develop local participation in its huge fisheries industry, currently dominated by foreign interests, with the help of a US$6.5 million loan approved today by the Asian Development Bank.
Despite its rich fisheries resources, including some of world's biggest stocks, Papua New Guinea's own participation in fisheries has been virtually non-existent until recently.
Foreign fishing fleets exploit PNG's offshore waters under access agreements that leave the country only six percent of the gross value of the catch. Moreover, any downstream benefits to PNG in terms of servicing, packaging and marketing are negligible.
The Philippines, Republic of Korea and the United States are among major nations operating within the waters of the PNG's exclusive economic zone.
All this is expected to change with the assistance of the Fisheries Development Project of the ADB, the lead aid donor in the Pacific.
The project will strengthen the National Fisheries Authority and help it manage the country's fisheries resources in a sustainable manner, including finding the optimum balance between the number of foreign and local fishing vessels. The project will also stimulate domestic private sector investment in fisheries through policy incentives and by providing wharves in Port Moresby and Madang that are needed for operations including landing and transfer of catches for packing and shipment.
Although the focus is on tuna, the policy and capacity building aspects will affect the whole fisheries sector. The project is expected to increase direct private sector investment by US$34 million, create job opportunities for 300 people and generate extra revenue for the country of US$30 million annually. The ADB loan will finance 70 percent of the total project cost of US$9.3 million. The Government will finance the remainder.
The ADB loan will be from the Bank's ordinary capital resources. It is repayable over 25 years, including a five-year grace period and the interest rate will be determined according to the Bank's pool-based variable lending rate system for US dollar loans. The project is due for completion by end-2002.
The executing agency for the project will be the National Fisheries Authority that has become a self-funding authority on the enactment of the Fisheries Management Act 1998. The PNG Harbours Board, in close consultation with the National Fisheries Authority, will construct wharf facilities. 11dec 1998. http://www.adb.org/Documents/News/1998/nr1998093.asp ===========================================================
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2797.htm
One of the most successful cooperative multilateral efforts linking the U.S. and Papua New Guinea is the U.S.-Pacific Islands Multilateral Tuna Fisheries Treaty, under which the U.S. grants $18 million per year to Pacific Island parties and the latter provide access for U.S. fishing vessels.
The United States has provided significant humanitarian assistance to Papua New Guinea during the past 5 years and has contributed to the rehabilitation of Bougainville.
The U.S. also supports Papua New Guinea's efforts to protect biodiversity. The U.S. Government supports the International Coral Reef Initiative aimed at protecting reefs in tropical nations such as Papua New Guinea.
ASEAN Expresses Strong Concern with U.S. Proposed Duty-Free Treatment on Imported Canned Tuna from Andean WASHINGTON --
ASEAN Ambassadors say granting duty-free benefits to imported canned tuna from Andean countries will put at least half of ASEAN Tuna Industry out of business. H.E. Albert del Rosario, Philippines Ambassador says that more than 98 percent of U.S. imported canned tuna come from six countries including Ecuador, five of these six countries are located in Southeast Asia.
"Our tuna industry is entirely based in Mindanao, where the Philippines is waging a war against terrorists and the poverty that breeds them. Damaging the Philippines' exports of tuna to the U.S. would seriously harm many tuna cannery workers in Mindanao, 35 percent of whom are from economically disadvantaged ethnic minority.
H.E. Sakthip Krairiksh, Thailand Ambassador reiterates that the proposed laws in congress that will grant the duty-free treatment will wipe out the level playing field and discriminate a number of other canned tuna exporting countries in favour of one country. This is a trade diversion measure not trade creation.
In his written message, Ambassador Soemadi D.M. Brotodiningrat of Indonesia also expresses concern over the proposed law that is anticipated to have an adverse impact on more than half a million Indonesian workers in the tuna industry, mainly in the eastern part of the country where economic progress and job availability are crucial to sustain the hard-won political and social stability.
While welcoming new players in the competitive U.S. tuna market, he wishes to see the competition be kept fair and non-discriminatory.
The Andean Trade Preference Act of 1991 expired on December 4, 2001. The U.S. House of Representatives approved the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act (H.R.3009) which will make canned tuna from Andean countries enter the U.S. at zero percent tariff while the Andean Trade Preference Expansion Act (S.525) that passed the Senate Finance Committee limited the number of duty-free canned tuna to 20% of U.S. canned tuna production.
The 20% of U.S. canned tuna production is the amount of U.S. annual quota for imported canned tuna. The canned tuna imported in quota pays much lower tariff than the one imported out of quota. The ASEAN Ambassadors have made a strong objection to the 0% tariff treatment for canned tuna imported from Andean, and urged that the U.S. maintains the status quo. Association of Southeast ASIAN Nations, Washington Committee, (AWC) Press Release on April 25,2002
Fisheries Ministers of ASEAN member countries, responsible for fisheries met for the first time at the ASEAN-SEAFDEC Conference on Sustainable Fisheries for Food Security in the New Millennium: “Fish for the People” in Bangkok on 24 November 2001.
The Ministers adopted a Resolution on Sustainable Fisheries for Food Security for the ASEAN Region. To give full effect to the adopted resolution, a Plan of Action on Sustainable Fisheries for Food Security for the ASEAN Region has been adopted.
The Plan of Action deals with fisheries management, aquaculture, sustainable utilization of fish and fishery products, fish trade, and regional and international policy formulation. ASEAN established formal cooperation with the Network of Aquaculture Centre in Asia and Pacific (NACA) in July 2001 in order to promote the application of appropriate technologies for sustainable aquaculture development and aquatic resources management.
The cooperation would include the harmonization of fisheries sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures and strengthening of national and regional capacities to control aquatic animal disease. In the area of aquaculture development, ASEAN continued to work on the harmonization of testing and quarantine procedures for groupers.
In addition, three publications and a manual on the harmonization of shrimps farming have been distributed to and used by farmers. http://www.aseansec.org/13552.htm
U.S.-PAPUA NEW GUINEA RELATIONS
The United States and Papua New Guinea established diplomatic relations upon the latter's independence on September 16, 1975. The two nations belong to a variety of regional organizations, including the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum; the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF); the South Pacific Commission; and the South Pacific Regional Environmental Program (SPREP).
One of the most successful cooperative multilateral efforts linking the U.S. and Papua New Guinea is the U.S.-Pacific Islands Multilateral Tuna Fisheries Treaty, under which the U.S. grants $18 million per year to Pacific Island parties and the latter provide access for U.S. fishing vessels.
The United States has provided significant humanitarian assistance to Papua New Guinea during the past 5 years and has contributed to the rehabilitation of Bougainville.
The U.S. also supports Papua New Guinea's efforts to protect biodiversity. The U.S. Government supports the International Coral Reef Initiative aimed at protecting reefs in tropical nations such as Papua New Guinea. http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2797.htm
WORKING GROUP OF ASEAN TUNA AFF
9th Council Meeting & Business conference
The meeting elected Mr. R.P. Poernomo from Indonesia and Mr. Rodrigo Rivera, Jr as the next Chairman and Secretary of the ASEAN Tuna Club, respectively.
The Meeting elected Mr. R.P. Poernomo of the Indonesian Fisheries Society as the Next Chairman of the ASEAN Tuna Club. The Meeting also elected Mr. Rodrigo River, Jr .as Secretary.
14.3 COUNTRY REPORT OF PHILIPPINES
Fisheries plays an important role in the Filipino National Economy. It contributes not only food for people, but also a major source of income and net foreign exchanges earner.
Fisheries sector contributed around P 76.4 billion (2.3%) to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of P.3,323 billion. The annual fish production in 2000 accounted 2.87 million metric tons, valued at P.95.5 billion.
Marine capture fisheries contributed about 66% and 34% from aquaculture. The Foreign trade performance of the fisheries sector for year 2000 recorded a trade surplus of US$ 413.0 million. Total fisheries exports amounted to US$ 506.8 million while fisheries imports reached to only US$ 93.8 million.
Tuna, shrimp/prawn and seaweed were top dollar earners accounted for 88% of the total export sales in fishery products. Fisheries sector provided employment of about one million or twelve percent (12%) of agriculture, fishery and forestry sector labour force estimated at 6,589,176 persons, 374,408 persons in municipal fisheries and 357,986 persons in commercial fisheries and 74,537 persons in aquaculture.
Based on the per capita consumption of fish and fishery products at 36 kilograms, the projected fish requirement in year 2000-2004 would be 3.423 million metric tons. The industry has to attain a growth rate of 3.5% for this period, from 2.87 million metric tons in year 2000 to 3.423 million metric tons in year 2004.
The National Fisheries Development Programs the Aqrikulturang Maka MASA - promote the policy environment and support facilities to exploit the potential source of additional production from commercial fisheries and to arrest the continuous decline of fish production from municipal fisheries through resource management and conservation activities in priority bays/gulfs and major inland bodies of water nationwide. The full Country Report of Philippines appears as in Annex 9. www.aff.or.id/reports/affreport2.doc
PHILIPPINES, THAILAND CRITICAL OF EUROPEAN AND US TUNA IMPORT POLICIES
The Philippines and Thailand on 23 April jointly requested WTO mediation after five months of talks with the EU failed to resolve disagreement over greater market access to European markets for canned tuna products from the two countries.
The Philippines and Thailand have asked the EU, which provides tax-free access for tuna imports from its former colonies in Africa, to lower its tariffs for canned tuna from 24 to 5 percent. The tuna dispute had already threatened to derail the launch of a new round of trade talks at the Fourth WTO Ministerial Conference in Qatar last year.
The mediations process is expected to begin later this month. In related news, the Philippines and Thailand have called on the US to delete provisions in the US Andean Trade Preferences Act that would give tariff-free access for canned tuna from the Andean countries to the US market. The Pact, which expired in December 2001 and is now up for renewal, aims to offer low tariffs for selected products from Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru as an incentive for them to combat drug trafficking.
The Philippines argue that the preferential measures on canned tuna imports would hamper the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)'s efforts to eradiate poverty and combat terrorism.
A Thai official said that the country is considering the possibility of challenging the measure at the WTO if passed by the US administration. "Philippines, Thailand, seeking WTO help in EU tuna dispute,"
KYODO NEWS, 23 April 2002; "ASEAN ambassadors concerned about US canned tuna imports," 25 April 2002.
Horizons 05/06/2003
Menado and Davao, two gateways to the future Blas F.. Ople
MENADO, Indonesia - The great tuna highway starts somewhere in the South Pacific, around the island state of Kiribati, and winds down to the waters of Papua New Guinea, then settles just off Sulawesi where the tuna spawns.
Last month, 154 Filipino fishermen in four pump boats, chasing the tuna schools near here, were apprehended by the Indonesian Navy for illegal fishing. Upon our intercession, all the fishermen were released after a brief interrogation in an Indonesian marine camp and our Ambassador to Indonesia, Rafael Seguis, escorted them to Davao City and back home to their families.
The tuna catch from these waters supplies the big canneries in General Santos City as well as in Menado. The fishnets also catch a lot of galunggong which is a favorite fish on Filipino tables. The Philippine Consul General, Reynaldo Martinez, assures me that maybe up to 60 percent of the galunggong supply in the markets of Metro Manila came from this source. The tuna feeds on the galunggong, and those who escape their jaws also end up in the nets - and in the market.
The tuna is highly migratory and does not settle in any single place except to spawn. They do spawn in waters currently disputed between Indonesia and the Philippines.
In the recent Third Joint Bilateral Commission meeting in Manila, hosted by the Department of Foreign Affairs, Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda and I agreed to form a joint technical working group to help resolve the maritime border issues between the two countries, which also bears on their exclusive economic zones under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
The delineation of maritime waters is essential to remove the present confusion which leads to the arrest of illegal fishermen from both sides. The negotiation can lead to the identification of overlapping areas, including the seabed, and the joint development of both fisheries and seabed marine resources.
Such a scheme has now been put in place between Australia and the new state of East Timor, in the so-called Timor Gap which has been found to contain oil and gas. The agreement followed ten years of often contentious negotiations. The theme of the hour, however, is how to forge closer economic cooperation between Northern Sulawesi; centered in this capital city of Menado, and the cities of Southern Philippines, notably Davao and General Santos cities.
As the first Philippine foreign minister to visit Menado, my quick trips to both Menado and Makassar, the latter being the capital of South Sulawesi, have boosted the economic partnership between the two regions. I have returned to Manila determined to push the regional integration program envisaged by the BIMP-EAGA regional development scheme of the ASEAN. These initials stand for Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines - East Asia Growth Area.
Of late the scope of economic integration has been extended to Northern Australia (Darwin) at the initiative of the Philippines. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has never tired of preaching the importance of BIMP-EAGA in all the ASEAN Summits that she as attended.
Northern Sulawesi has a predominantly Christian population. I saw new chapels with the cross sprouting all over the countryside between Menado and Bitung, the latter being the major port of Eastern Indonesia, just an hour's drive away. But the people here are extremely proud of the religious tolerance that pervades the entire society, in contrast to the neighboring province of Maluku, where religious tensions have often broken but into violent incidents in the past several years.
Mindful of the threat of international terrorism, both the Philippines and Indonesia have agreed to intensify their cooperation in law enforcement. The new chief of police of Northern Sulawesi, Brig. Gen. John Lalo will visit Davao and Cebu cities beginning May 15 as the official guest of General Hermogenes Ebdane, the chief of the PNP. I hope this visit will lead to concrete mechanisms for raising the level of our cooperation in law enforcement.
There are grounds to believe that the next economic miracle in Southeast Asia will be occurring in this vast region where four countries meet - the Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia. Menado, Davao, General Santos and Zamboanga cities bid fair to be the new entrepot of this vast, promising region, the gateways to a dynamic future of Southeast Asia and the Pacific rim.
www.genderandtrade.net/Asia/Asia_Tuna.pdf
Philippine Tuna Trade background,
http://www.spc.int/OceanFish/Html/SCTB/SCTB16/nfr21.pdf
The above document provides information about the state of PNG's fishing industry- June 2003.
http://www.spc.int/OceanFish/Html/SCTB/SCTB14/NFR11.pdf.
Good background on PNG fishing industry
Http://www.mft.govt.nz/foreign/regions/pacific/econupdate/2003/may03/papuang.html
The ACP-EU Council has approved PNG's request to export more processed tuna to the EU duty-free and recognises local company RD Tuna Company, as meeting its stringent standards for fish processing and canning facilities.
Until now the EU had set a quota of only 2284 metric tonnes for PNG tuna exports. Most PNG companies export fresh tuna direct to Japan or canned fish for the local market.
Access to the EU market is expected to be a major boost to the fishing industry and is especially timely with cannery projects coming on line in Weewak and Madang.
The National Fisheries Authority is keen to increase the number of long line fishing vessels - an area of the sector restricted to PNG.
Fiji bans fishing in traditional grounds Foreign companies are restricted from fishing in Fiji's archipelago waters, now declared by the government as traditional fishing grounds.
Radio Fiji reports that the Fisheries Ministry has warned foreign fish company owners not to fish in the archipelago waters, despite holding local fishing licenses. The Fisheries Minister, Konisi Yabaki, says only indigenous Fijians and foreign companies with indigenous shareholders and have vessels less than 20-metres in length, can fish in the restricted area.
Mr Yabaki says companies who don't meet the criteria can fish from the area between the territorial zone and the exclusive economic zone. He says the decision follows a government proposal to strengthen and revert full customary fishing rights and ownership of sea resources to indigenous Fijians.
08/01/2004 18:13:38 | ABC Radio Australia News
Tuna industry players seek access with Pacific nations-----(Pacnews, 13 Sept. 06)
Reports from Sun Star 13 SEPTEMBER 2006 MANILA(Pacnews)-
Tuna industry players are asking the Philippines Government to fast track the forging of bilateral fishing agreements with Pacific Island nations and Indonesia to address the problem of dwindling tuna catches.
In a resolution adopted during the recently concluded 8th Tuna Congress, industry leaders said domestic tuna catches could not cope up with the requirements of the tuna canneries and processing plants.
“The industry is now increasingly dependent on the supply of tuna caught outside the Philippine exclusive economic zone,” the resolution adopted during the plenary said.
The Philippine tuna industry accounts for about 12 percent of the country's total fisheries production and support over 120,000 jobs. It accounts for about P10 billion in commercial value per year. Six of the country's eight tuna canneries are based in General Santos City, the “Tuna Capital of the Philippines.”
Francisco Herda, an operator of about a dozen tuna pump boats, said they have been catching further from the shores even up to the waters off Indonesia. “Our operational costs, particularly for diesel, are soaring due to the distance. Before, we can catch tuna in about a week's time in our seas but now the average is about 45 days because we are going farther and farther,” he said.Other industry players estimated that fuel expenses eat 50 percent to 60 percent of the operational costs for one fishing expedition.
With bilateral or multilateral fishing access agreements with Pacific Island nations and Indonesia, the resolution said it would further strengthen the chances of the tuna industry from disintegration. The country is presently a member of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Cooperation that determines tuna catch allocation in the convention area but the players argued it is not enough and that there is really a need to forge access accords with Pacific Island nations.
“The establishment of more fishing arrangements is essential to further boost the competitive advantage of the Philippine tuna industry,” the resolution stressed. “Such arrangements will safeguard the livelihood of thousands of fishermen, processing plant workers and their families who are dependent on the industry,” it added.
Although the resolution did not mention, which countries should the government forge fishing access agreements, those among the Pacific Island nations are American Samoa, Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Palau, Papua New Guinea, and Micronesia. The Philippines last February signed a memorandum of understanding with Indonesia on fisheries cooperation that seeks to enhance trade ties between them for five years.
However, the extension of the fishing licenses granted under the fishing access agreement between the Philippines and Indonesia will expire this December. The tuna industry players wanted the government to sign a new fishing access deal with Indonesia under the Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asean Growth Area, particularly through the Eaga Agro Industrial Cooperation scheme.
Stanley Swerdloff, senior fisheries advisor for the Growth with Equity in Mindanao programme said the rich tuna production ground of the country, Celebes Sea, is feeling the crunch of fishing operations. “The danger signs are already there. There is the expansion of fishing fleets and new players over 15 years,” he said.
Mr Swerdloff said the sustainability of the country's tuna industry hinges not only in responsible catching and observance of existing fishing regulations on the Philippine waters but also to the larger Western and Central Pacific oceans……..PNS(ENDS)