International & Trade

HONG KONG — January 20, 2014 — The Japanese government Monday defended the practice of dolphin hunting off its coastline, taking issue with the new American ambassador, Caroline Kennedy, who pointedly criticized its “inhumaneness” in a recent Twitter post.

Ms. Kennedy objected to a form of fishing called “drive hunt” killing, in which dolphins are herded together by boats into an area they cannot escape, resulting in the capture of scores, if not hundreds, of dolphins. Critics have called the practice inhumane for the sheer number of dolphins killed and the threat it poses to the animal’s populations.

“Deeply concerned by inhumaneness of drive hunt dolphin killing. USG opposes drive hunt fisheries,” Ms. Kennedy said in her post on Saturday, referring to the United States government’s position on the issue.

On Tuesday, responding to the criticism, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Yoshihide Suga, defended the practice.

“Dolphin fishing is a form of traditional fishing in our country,” he said, responding to a question about Ms. Kennedy’s criticism. “We will explain Japan’s position to the American side.”

Read the full story at the New York Times

TOKYO (AP) — January 20, 2014 — A Japanese government spokesman defended an annual dolphin hunt Monday, after U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy tweeted that she was deeply concerned by the inhumanity of the practice.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference that dolphin fishing in Japan is carried out appropriately in accordance with the law.

‘‘Dolphin fishing is a form of traditional fishing in our country,’’ he said, responding to a question about Kennedy’s criticism. ‘‘We will explain Japan’s position to the American side.’’

Kennedy tweeted on Saturday, ‘‘Deeply concerned by inhumaneness of drive hunt dolphin killing.’’ She added that the U.S. government opposes such fishing.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Boston Globe

MANILA, Philippines — January 18, 2014 — Joining a United Nations arbitration process to resolve territorial disputes is the course of action China should take and not just meeting Manila “halfway” on a controversial fisheries regulation in disputed waters, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said yesterday.

“The nine-dash line claim is in gross violation of international law. It is the core issue that must be singularly and fully addressed,” DFA spokesman Raul Hernandez said. “To this end, we reiterate our invitation to China to join us in arbitration as we intend to proceed with or without China for a final disposition.”He said the fisheries rule, which China’s Hainan province vowed to enforce on foreign fishing vessels “is only one of the unilateral measures by China to force a change in the regional status quo in order to advance its nine-dash line position of undisputed sovereignty over nearly the entire South China Sea.”  

The new fisheries law sparked condemnation from China’s neighbors as well as from the United States, which called it provocative. The fisheries regulation requires all foreign fishing vessels to obtain approval from Chinese authorities before transiting into Hainan’s administrative zone in the South China Sea for fishing or surveying activities.  

On Friday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said China was always willing to make efforts to resolve the issue through talks.  

Hernandez said that way back in 2001, the Philippines had made clear to China that the two countries could proceed with their bilateral agenda even while dealing separately with contentious issues, particularly maritime disputes.  

Read the full story at Philippine News  

January 16, 2014 — China’s fisheries output rose 15 percent last year in terms of value while rising 4.5 percent in volume terms, according to the agricultural ministry in Beijing which released the data at a briefing this week.

At its annual conference on fisheries (which comes under the remit of the department) the agricultural ministry valued the sector at CNY 1.9 trillion (USD 314 billion, EUR 213 billion) in 2013, an increase of 15 percent year-over-year. The figure encompasses earnings across the sector, from aquaculture to local fisheries for domestic consumption.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

January 15, 2014 — With supply exceeding demand in the short term, yellowfin tuna importers are looking for creative ways to start reducing inventories. A shortage of product in 2012 that resulted in a flurry of orders to build tuna inventories has left some importers with excess at a time when demand has waned.

Yellowfin processors in Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines ramped up efforts at a time when contracts with higher prices were in the market, sids Paige Tilghman, executive VP for Twin Tails Seafood Corp. in Miami. As supply grew and prices fell, those with contracts started to feel the pinch, he said.

At the same time, higher prices pushed foodservice operators and other buyers to look at alternatives such as mahimahi or even pangasius, he added.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource.com

January 14, 2013 — But while it’s clear business is brisk, there’s little else clear-cut about China’s wholesale seafood trade, especially when it comes to imports. Those who have lived some time in Beijing will be used to the lack of transparency or traceability in the grocery trade. Fish mongers in local supermarkets or wet markets I regularly visit rarely bother with labelling that describes the providence or production process in seafood on sale and often appear puzzled why you’d want to know who the producer might be.

Yes, retailers and restaurants have become increasingly keen to stress the providence of their goods when it’s imported: French oysters or Canadian crabs fetch a premium price. But it’s less about traceability than profit, with little effort to assure or educate customers about what they’re buying.

Part of the reason for this goes back to the Jingshen, and the nature of the trade. Many of the firms importing seafood come from non-seafood backgrounds. Some of the country’s larger seafood importers are in the mining (like the curiously-named Sunkfa International Trading Co, one of Beijing’s biggest importers) or manufacturing sectors and have studied the markups in seafood and piled in.

These are not seafood importers then in the traditional sense. But they’ve been lucky to corner one of the limited licenses from government that allows them to import seafood for domestic consumption. They’re very reluctant to talk about what they import, I’ve discovered, having made numerous attempts to interview executives of firms (including Sunkfa) I’ve been pointed to while hanging around the sprawling Jingshen market.

I can understand some of the reticence. Firms with the license to import seafood have been eager to ask me for new contacts and new sources of imports. But none have been willing to speak on the record about their trade.

Read the full story at Seafood Source 

 

January 10, 2014 — New fishing regulations issued by a Chinese province along the South China Sea have once again focused international attention on a complex territorial dispute and raised the question of what kind of power China will become.

In a move that a spokeswoman for the State Department, Jen Psaki, on Thursday called a “provocative and potentially dangerous act,” the southern Chinese province of Hainan issued the new regulations, effective Jan. 1, that require foreign fishing vessels to obtain permission from the Chinese government before plying sea waters that China claims.

At a regular briefing on Thursday in Beijing, Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that such local regulations were “completely normal and routine practice.” She did not answer a question about the scope of the new regulations.

The South China Sea is at the heart of a territorial dispute involving China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei. Taiwan also claims parts of the sea. Beijing’s claim is outlined in a controversial “nine-dash line” boundary that encompasses much of the resource-rich waters, which are also a major strategic waterway for international trade.

Read the full story at the New York Times

January 9, 2014 — If most people think human trafficking is all about sexual exploitation, the mistake is understandable. After all, last year’s State Department report on trafficking noted that 85 percent of prosecutions for this crime worldwide — and more than 89 percent of convictions — were for sex-related offenses. But, as an International Labor Organization study found in 2012, more than three-quarters of trafficking victims in the global private economy are exploited for labor. And the world is just starting to learn how much of this is tied to fishing.

Yes, fishing.

Not some reality TV show about stout-hearted seafarers, but the grim world of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Vessels engaged in illegal, unregulated fishing not only steal precious food resources off the coasts of poor countries, engage in drug smuggling and damage marine ecosystems — they also prey on human beings, trapping workers on boats as slaves.

For purposes of indictment, it is hard to beat a conclusion in a 2011 paper by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime: “Perhaps the most disturbing finding of the study was the severity of the abuse of fishers trafficked for the purpose of forced labor on board fishing vessels. These practices can only be described as cruel and inhumane treatment in the extreme. . . . A particularly disturbing facet of this form of exploitation is the frequency of trafficking in children in the fishing industry.”

Mark P. Lagon is a professor at Georgetown University and an adjunct senior fellow for human rights at the Council on Foreign Relations. He was U.S. ambassador at large for human trafficking from 2007 to 2009.

Read the full opinion piece at The Washington Post 

MOSCOW — January 8, 2014 — Having just quieted the furor over its seizure of a Greenpeace International ship in the Arctic, Russia is embroiled in a new dispute with the environmental organization, this time over a Russian fishing trawler accused of poaching in coastal waters off Senegal.

The Oleg Naydenov, a Russian-owned fishing boat, was seized by the Senegalese military on Saturday and taken to the port of Dakar, accused of trawling in the country’s exclusive economic zone.

Senegal’s Fishing Ministry has demanded more than $800,000 in fines, while the Russian government has called for a diplomatic resolution to the standoff.

With talks repeatedly delayed in Senegal through Wednesday evening, the Russian government has blamed Greenpeace for the troubles. Officials in Moscow say the group encouraged Senegal to detain the boat and forced “Senegal to act according to Greenpeace press releases.”

Just three weeks ago, Russia amnestied 30 crew members aboard the Greenpeace ship the Arctic Sunrise who had been detained for more than three months after staging a maritime protest against Russia’s first offshore oil rig in the Arctic.

Read the full story at the New York Times

January 10, 2014 — Hainan’s provincial government has become an increasingly prominent and active player in the South China Sea disputes.  In November 2012, Hainan’s People’s Congress issued new regulations on coastal border security that raised questions about freedom for navigation in the South China Sea.

In November 2013, the same legislative body issued “measures” (banfa, 办法) or rules for the province’s implementation of China’s 2004 fisheries law.  These new rules, which took effect on January 1, raise questions about China’s efforts to exercise jurisdiction over all fishing activities in the disputed South China Sea.

Current concerns focus on Article 35 of Hainan’s new fishing rules. This article states that “foreigners or foreign fishing ships entering sea areas administered by Hainan and engaged in fishery production or fishery resource surveys should receive approval from relevant departments of the State Council.” As the news report announcing the new rules indicated, the “sea areas administered by Hainan” constitute 2,000,000 square kilometers, more than half of the South China Sea. If implemented, the measures would constitute an effort to control fishing in the entire region in a manner that is clearly inconsistent with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

In assessing the potential implications of these measures for the disputes in the South China Sea, several points bear consideration.  All told, the new measures reflect part of a continuing effort to affirm and reaffirm China’s claims in the South China Sea, but are unlikely in the short to medium term to result in a sustained Chinese effort to control fishing in these vast waters.

Read the full post at The Diplomat