Commercial Information Circulars

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Ref : EIC 230/2/11

20 July 2009

Dear Sirs,

Commercial Information Circular No. 371/2009

European Union (EU)* : Regulation on illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing

The Council of the European Union (the Council) has adopted a Regulation concerning the establishment of a Community System to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Details are set out in the Council Regulation (EC) No. 1005/2008 (the Regulation). The Regulation can be accessed through the following link:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2008:286:0001:0032:EN:PDF

DETAILS

2. Under the Regulation, illegal fishing refers to fishing without permission, or in contravention of relevant conservation and management measures, laws and regulations of a customs territory (the flag State). Unreported fishing means fishing activities without report, or misreport to the relevant national authority or organizations. Unregulated fishing is fishing activities by vessels without nationality, or by vessels flying a wrong flag of a State, or fishing activities not consistent with the State responsibilities for the conservation of living marine resources under international law.
3. To promote better ocean governance and to prevent IUU fishing which constitutes one of the most serious threats to the sustainable exploitation of living aquatic resources, trade with the Community on fishery products (under CN Chapter 3 and tariff headings 1604 and 1605, except those listed in Annex I of the Regulation) stemming from IUU fishing will be prohibited. Fishery products exported to the Community must be accompanied by a catch certificate in conformity with the Regulation. This catch certificate shall be validated by the competent authority of the flag State of the fishing vessel(s). The information to be contained in the catch certificate can be found in the specimen in Annex II of the Regulation.
4. If the fishery products are transported from a third country other than the flag State, the importer shall submit the followings to the relevant EU authorities:
   • -a catch certificate validated by the flag State; and
   • -documented evidence indicating that the fishery products did not undergo operations other than unloading, reloading or preservation, and remained under surveillance of the competent authorities in that third country.
5. In case the fishery products which have been processed in a third country other than the flag State, the importer shall submit a statement established by the processing plant in that third country and endorsed by its competent authorities in accordance with the form in Annex IV:
   • -giving an exact description of the unprocessed and processed products and their respective quantities;
   • -indicating that the processed products have been processed in that third country from catches accompanied by catch certificate(s) validated by the flag State(s); and
   • -accompanied by the original catch certificate(s) where the totality of the catches concerned has been used for the processing of the fishery products exported, or a copy of the original catch certificate(s), where part of the catches concerned has been used for the processing of the fishery products exported.
6. In general, the validated catch certificates shall be submitted by the importer to the competent authorities of the importing States at least three working days before the estimated time of arrival at the place of entry into the territory of the Community.
7. The Regulation will enter into force on 1 January 2010.

ENQUIRIES

8. For enquiries concerning the content of this circular, please contact the undersigned at telephone number 2398 5556.

Yours faithfully,

(Miss Peggy LEUNG)

for Director-General of Trade and Industry

* The EU includes Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.