Camillo Catarci, Consultant, Fisheries Department (FAO)

The amount of online information on policies affecting trade in fishery products is vast and often dispersed among dozens of web sites. There is a diffused need by the fishery industry and other interested users to have facilitated internet access to such information. This web site is aimed at responding to this need. It indeed hosts a portal gathering hyperlinks to the relevant web pages of institutions shaping the regulatory framework on trade in fishery products. Links within the portal are ordered per general policy framework, geographic area, institution, policy of the institution and commodity. Links to the main (global, regional and national) tariff databases and trade statistics databases online are also provided.

1. General policy framework:

Trade policy. Under this framework, the web site includes strict trade provisions e.g., policies on tariffs, non-tariff barriers and subsidies.

Health and safety. Legislation on health and safery aims to safeguard human, animal and plant health from potentially harmful goods entering domestic markets. In the case of trade in foodstuffs, health and safety provisions are of a particular importance. Over the years, governments have been designing elaborated sets of health and safety requirements on the import of foodstuffs which, in some cases, might lead to trade restrictions.

Environment and Development. This section includes provisions on the environmental and social dimensions of trade such as conservation of natural resources and of ecosystems, sustainable development and food security.

2. Geographic area. The institutions can operate on a global, regional or national level.

3. Institution. The web site provides links to international organizations such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the World Trade Organization (WTO), regional organizations such as the European Union (EU), national institutions such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and some Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs).

4. Policy of the institution. Examples include WTO's Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) and application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS).

In a nutshell, the web site provides a set of ordered hyperlinks to international, regional and national institutions shaping the regulatory framework on trade in fishery products. Therefore, the site does not cover:

-those institutions having irrelevant or no impact on trade in fishery products, even if they perform fisheries-related policy work
-field programmes and projects of formal sector organizations and NGOs,
-soft law, unless of a particular importance, such as the FAO Code of Conduct on Responsible Fisheries.

5. Commodity. The main groupings of commodities as identified by FAO GLOBEFISH are: Groundfish, Flatfish, Tuna (including billfishes), Small Pelagics, Cephalopods, Crustaceans, Bivalves, Salmon (including trout), Freshwater fishes and Non-traditional species (sharks, sturgeons, etc.). The website provides links to international and regional legislation affecting trade on these resources.

Fish Trade Regulations on the Web - a brief guided tour

• On a global level, WTO and the organizations of the UN system are the main actors shaping the regulatory framework on trade in fishery products. The WTO provides the institutional structure for the opening of world markets, whereas UN organizations address the issues of sustainable development, environmental conservation and food security as targets world trade liberalization must meet.

• The WTO system is based on a series of agreements whose aim is the gradual opening of international markets in goods, with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), services, with the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and traded inventions, with the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs). GATT provides for the liberalization of trade in goods through gradual reduction of tariffs, conversion of non-tariff import restrictions into tariffs (tariffication) and elimination of trade-distorting domestic support. Developing countries can count on extended schedules and other special provisions to help adapting their economies to world trade liberalization, such as technical assistance and training programmes.

• Specific WTO agreements have been concluded in order to determine the conditions under which specific trade restricting measures are permitted and considered not to violate principles of trade liberalization.

• The Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) tries to ensure that technical standards, regulations and conformity assessment procedures do not create unnecessary barriers to trade. Countries can adopt standards they deem appropriate for human, animal or plant health, protection of the environment or of consumers. However, WTO promotes the use of international standards and discourages methods giving to domestic goods an unfair advantage.

• The Agreement on the application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) complements that on TBT. It aims to ensure a balance between protection of health and safety on the one hand and international trade on the other. It encourages member states to use international standards on food safety, animal and plant health, such as those set by the FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission and by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). Nevertheless, states can set their own standards at higher protection levels on the basis of science or of an appropriate risk assessment. Higher standards should be applied only to the extent necessary to protect human, animal, plant life and health. They should not discriminate between countries with identical or similar conditions.

• The Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM) disciplines the use of subsidies for products not covered by the Agreement on Agriculture, e.g. fishery products. It also disciplines the actions states can take against them. A state can either launch the WTO dispute-settlement procedure or make its own inspection to subsequently charge a countervailing duty on subsidised imports hurting domestic producers.

• A trade dispute arises when one or more member states challenge a measure by another member as being in violation of WTO agreements or commitments. WTO ensures the settlement of these disputes through a multilateral system. The first stage of this mechanism involves consultations to help states finding an agreement between themselves. If they fail to do so, the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB), which is really the WTO General Council in a different guise, appoints a Panel which is in charge of preparing a report after hearing both parties and independent experts. If the Panel decides there is a violation of WTO rules, it recommends the defendant state to conform its measure to them. The report then becomes the DSB ruling, unless rejected by consensus within the DSB. Both parties may appeal the ruling. If the country who is the target of the complaint loses, it must comply with the rulings of the DSB or of the Appellate Body. If it fails to do so, negotiations for compensation to the complaining country(ies) are held. If no agreement for compensation is found, the DSB may impose commensurate trade sanctions.

• UN agencies and programmes contribute to the shaping of the international trade framework by focusing on the impact of trade on the environment, sustainable development and food security. They also have a primary role in developing the international standards for food health and safety. The 1992 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) introduced for the first time on a binding document issues such as the sustainable management of fishery resources. The 1995 FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries tackles issues such as the health, safety and quality requirements in processing and marketing fishery products. The CITES Convention sets restrictions on trade in specimens of wild fauna and flora listed in its three appendices.

• The FAO/World Health Organization (WHO) Codex Alimentarius Commission provides the international standards for food hygiene, contaminants, food technology, food import and export, microbiology and fishery products. Other internationally-recognised standards setting bodies are the above-mentioned OIE and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

• International NGOs have a strong influence on the shaping of the regulatory framework of trade in fishery products. Some NGOs lobby the WTO and UN agencies to raise the profile of the environment, sustainable development and food safety in their trade agendas. Other organizations such as the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) set up practical tools such as eco-labelling schemes to foster sustainable trade in fishery products.

On a regional level states have been creating various Regional Economic Organizations (REOs) to foster peace and prosperity in given areas through market and eventually economic integration. Article 24 of GATT allows states to set up REOs as a special exception to the principle of equal treatment for all trading partners (most favoured nation). However REOs should help trade flow more freely among their member countries without raising further trade barriers against third countries. This web site provides links to online REOs from Europe, Asia Pacific and Oceania, the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas. Among REOs, the European Union (EU) did reach a high degree of economic and even political integration. EU legislation now governs the majority of policy areas within its member states, being particularly dominant in sectors such as fisheries, trade, health and safety.

Among the regional bodies not pursuing any economic or political integration, Regional Fishery Bodies and Arrangements (RFBAs) do have a certain impact on trade in fish and fishery products. The role of these bodies is to manage resources in a sustainable way. On the basis of scientific evidence they recommend measures aimed at maintaining the natural resources under their mandate at levels allowing maximum sustainable catch in the areas under mandate.

On a national level, the web site provides links to legislation affecting fish trade of selected countries.

Acknowledgements

Credits are owed to Ms. Turan Rahimzadeh for her assistance in the preparation of this web site.