BANGKOK, 22 April 2015 – The power synergy of all Thai authorities related to illegal fishing becomes even more stringent after the EU has issued Yellow card to the the world’s third-largest seafood exporter on Monday, hoping to clean up the problem within six months.
A wide range of measures have been conducted so far by different ministries while some are waiting for launching. In parallel, Thailand sent requests for official documents from the EU to see in which aspects Thailand must improve.
Commerce Minister Chatchai Sarikulya said several laws were amended under the consideration of a newly launched special committee led by Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha. They are waiting for official enactment very soon.
Commercial Consellors at Thai embassies worldwide have been assigned to keep foreign governments and EU staff informed about Thailand’s seriousness in tackling the EU complaint.
However, Thailand has plan B to export Thai fishes to East Europe, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam in replacement of EU market in case it finally faces a trade ban.
According to the Department of International Trade Promotion, the export value of canned and processed seafoods to EU has decreased by 21.12% from last year with a US$46 million income.
“EU gave a scope of four areas that Thailand needs to work on and we have done much so far,” said Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives Pitipong Phuengboon Na Ayudhaya.
In line with those directives, Thailand has urgently standardized several laws including Fisheries Act B.E. 2490, waiting for enactment. Another move is the improvement of national operations plan to crack down on the illegal, unreported, uncontrolled fishing (IUU). Thirdly, GPSs were deployed on fishing boats. Lastly, the application of traceability system in fishing process has been launched.
The Labour Ministry is also working to suppress human trafficking with the hard effort to register all migrant workers before drastically enforcing the new labour law.
