EU, MAURITANIA RENEGOTIATE FISHERIES ACCESS AGREEMENT

The EU and Mauretania have signed a new fisheries agreement. Under the new deal, the EU will engage in significantly less fishing off Mauritania's coast. Some of the money previously paid as access fees will be channelled back to Mauritania in the form of aid to develop the fisheries sector.

The EU-Mauritania Fisheries Partnership Agreement is the EU's largest, and has provided Mauritania with one third of its national revenue. The new four-year protocol was agreed on 13 March, following internal EU agreement at the Agriculture and Fisheries Council on 18 February.

The EU has 20 bilateral fishing agreements, primarily with developing countries in Africa, allowing EU vessels to fish within the exclusive economic zones of these countries.

Terms of the agreement

Under the renegotiated agreement, the EU will pay Mauritania EUR 75.25 million a year to catch 250,000 tonnes of fish species, including octopus, crab, crawfish, sardines, anchovies and lobster, from 1 August 2008 to 31 July 2012. This is down from the EUR 86 million per year the EU was previously paying to catch 440,000 tonnes of fish species, a quota that the EU was not using in its entirety. The agreement also provides for increased investment in the Mauritanian fisheries industry. In addition to the EUR 75.25 million per year to fish in Mauritanian waters, the EU will provide an additional EUR 15 million per year for licences and EUR 16.25 million to develop the fisheries sector and to promote sustainable fisheries.

A European Commission spokesperson noted that, "this new protocol responds better than the current one to Mauritania's needs in terms of sustainable development of its national fisheries sector, and also takes into account the changes in the European fleet operating in Mauritanian waters."

Fish, pay and go?

Although the EU has invested money in developing Mauritania's fisheries sector and now is decreasing its allowable catch, Europe has been severely criticised for depleting Africa's fish stocks. Steve Trent, Executive Director of the Environmental Justice Foundation stressed that, "as Europe has sought to manage its fisheries and to limit its fishing, what we've done is to export the overfishing problem elsewhere, particularly to Africa." EU officials for their part insisted that they were being used as "scapegoats" for poor management of national fisheries.

The EU is not alone in accessing Mauritanian and other African waters. Fishing vessels from Eastern Europe and East Asia - particularly Russia and China - are also operating in the waters off of Africa for fish, contributing to the current collapse of the fisheries. These fleets typically stay for shorter time spans and do not make promises related to sustainable fishing and development. Currently, most of Mauritania's private vessel fleet is co-owned by Chinese companies.

Access fees exempt in WTO negotiations

The ongoing negotiations on fisheries subsidies under the WTO Doha Round also cover fisheries access fees (see Bridges Trade BioRes, 8 February 2008, http://www.ictsd.org/biores/08-02-08/story2.htm). These have been exempted from the list of prohibited subsidies; in the current negotiating text, government-to-government payments are not considered subsidies and are thus not vulnerable to being challenged at the WTO.

"EU and Mauritania Initial New Protocol Under Fisheries Partnership Agreement," EU PRESS CORNER, 14 March 2008; "EU Finalises Deal to Fish Less Off Mauritania Coast," REUTERS, 17 March 2008; "EU to Renegotiate Mauritania Fish Deal, Spend Less," REUTERS, 18 February 2008; "Europe Takes Africa's Fish, and Boatloads of Migrants Follow," NEW YORK TIMES, 14 January 2008.