More than 20 years after St Vincent and the Grenadines was banned from exporting seafood to the European Union, Minister of Fisheries, Saboto Caesar is promising that the situation will be resolved soon.
Addressing the opening of the Jamaica-owned Rainforest Seafoods’ processing plant in Calliaqua over the last weekend Caesar said “quite recently”, St Vincent and the Grenadines received technical support “so that we can be up to date with our Port State Measures regulations”.
The agreement on Port State Measures (PSMA) is the first binding international agreement to specifically target illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Its objective is to prevent, deter and eliminate IUU fishing by preventing vessels engaged in IUU fishing from using ports and landing their catches.
In this way, the PSMA reduces the incentive of such vessels to continue to operate while it also blocks fishery products derived from IUU fishing from reaching national and international markets.
The ban on Vincentian seafood entering the European Union has been raised in Parliament, with Opposition Leader, Godwin Friday tabling a question for the July 25 meeting of the National Assembly.