Sep
5
Tuna processing plant. (Photo: Stock File)
Galicia again claims equal requirements for third country tuna industries
SPAIN
Friday, September 06, 2013, 02:30 (GMT + 9)
During the VI World Tuna Conference, which is to be held in Vigo between 9 and 10 September, the Xunta de Galicia again is to request that industrialists from third countries comply with the same rules as the Spanish ones when they process seafood, especially tuna.
According to the Secretary General of Marine Affairs, Juan Maneiro, the regional government will make an effort for the managers from the European Union (EU) to understand “the socioeconomic importance” this activity has in Galicia and in Spain.
Furthermore, the Xunta will try to convince them that the agreements with Papua-New Guinea and with Thailand to market their products on the Community market lead to “a playing field” in which the European tuna industry can not compete in the same way, reported EFE.
Maneiro referred to the exemption as to environmental, socio-labour and health requirements, benefiting the firms from third countries, and these are requirements that European companies must respect imperatively.
Besides, he assured that if the criteria were unified, the tuna industry from Spain would not have “concerns” about the competition from third countries.
Meanwhile, the general secretary of the National Association of Manufacturers of Canned Fish and Shellfish (Anfaco-Cecopesca), Juan Manuel Vieites, acknowledged that trade pacts with Southeast Asian nations have hit the Spanish industry in “some waterline.”
“We want equal treatment and balanced positions,” he highlighted.
The World Tuna Conference will host more than 300 executives from companies located in 29 countries, which in turn account for 90 per cent of world production of canned fish and seafood.
Vieites noted that next week “Vigo will become the world tuna capital, becoming an alternative to Bangkok,” the newspaper La Voz de Galicia informed.
Related article:
– Government welcomes report on Thai fishers’ abuse
By Analia Murias
editorial@fis.com
www.fis.com
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