Europêche pushes the EU towards sustainable fish imports – In an official statement, Europêche – the main organisation representing European fisheries – has taken a clear stance on the public consultation launched by the European Commission on the future of autonomous tariff quotas (ATQs). The core of the message is clear: preferential access to the European market for fishery products can no longer ignore environmental and social sustainability criteria.
The current ATQ system allows the duty-free import of more than 900,000 tonnes per year of processed fish products from third countries based solely on the criterion of order of arrival. A mode that, according to Europêche, has favoured distorting trade practices, damaging the competitiveness of European fleets and favouring third countries not bound by EU environmental and labour standards.
In the statement, Daniel Voces, director general of Europêche, strongly denounces the inconsistency of a trade policy that ‘preaches sustainability within European borders but allows tariff exemptions for products that do not respect the same principles’. According to Voces, the EU now has a historic opportunity to transform TAQs from mere economic instruments into strategic levers to promote a fairer, more transparent and more respectful global fishery.
Also of concern to the association is the direct impact on vulnerable sectors such as tuna, where 35,000 tonnes of fillets imported duty-free from Asian countries enter Europe every year, many of which are involved in IUU (illegal, unreported, unregulated) fishing practices and violations of workers’ rights. These imports, Europêche points out, end up flooding the European market in a matter of days, with devastating effects on prices and the resilience of the EU fleet.
The communiqué sets out five strategic priorities for a reform consistent with EU values: mandatory sustainability for access to preferential tariffs, exclusion of countries involved in IUU fishing, concrete support for domestic production, trade reciprocity and alignment of the ATQ regime with other EU policies, including new directives on company due diligence and fisheries control.
Javier Garat, president of Europêche, emphasises that autonomous tariff quotas must become a tool to strengthen the strategic autonomy of the European fisheries sector, not to undermine it.
‘Today we are giving tariff advantages to countries like China without any counterpart in terms of transparency, sustainability or reciprocity. This has to stop.’
With this official stance, Europêche aims to stimulate decisive political action from the European Commission. The challenge is to combine competitiveness and responsibility, offering European processors affordable raw materials, but no longer sacrificing the marine environment and the dignity of labour in the name of the lowest price.
The public consultation will close in the coming weeks, and the results could redefine the EU’s trade relations with global partners in the fishing industry. Europêche, meanwhile, has drawn a clear line: tariff exemptions must become a reward for those who respect the rules, not a refuge for those who circumvent them.
Europêche pushes the EU towards sustainable fish imports
