Kerala - Kochi   

State’s favourite fish may escape duty-free import net

KOCHI: Oil sardine and mackerel, Malayalis’ most favourite fish varieties, are likely to escape the list of duty-free import from Europe in the Indo-European Union trade and investment agreement, set to be signed late next year.

The two, which the Europeans use as chicken feed, are among eight categories of fish that might be exempted from the 40 proposed to be imported duty-free from Europe under the agreement. The eight categories—which include sardine, mackerel, pomfret, anchovy and tuna—are likely to be put on the ‘sensitive list’ in Annexure 4 of the agreement while the other 32 will stay on the ‘less sensitive list.’ The exemption follows agitation by fish workers’ unions in Kerala and pressure from the State government.

The suggestion for exempting the eight categories from duty-free import was accepted at the ‘Indo-EU trade and investment negotiation wrap-up meeting’ held in New Delhi on Saturday. The meeting was the culmination of a series of six consultative meetings on the Indo-EU bilateral trade agreement organised by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the Union Commerce Ministry in the past one month. However, the recommendations of the meetings have to be okayed by a 14-member EU delegation that is arriving in India on October 1 for consultations with the Commerce Ministry and, ultimately, at the final round of negotiations before the agreement is inked next year.

“The exemption is a major victory for the fish workers in the country, particularly those in Kerala,” Charles George, general secretary of the Kerala Matsaythozhilali Aikya Vedi, who was the sole representative of the country’s eight-million fish workers at the Delhi meeting, told The Hindu. “If these eight categories are put on the ‘less sensitive list’ and hence freely imported from Europe, the livelihood of the traditional fish workers in Kerala will be doomed.”

Duty-free import of fish is likely to reduce the prices on the domestic market and cut into the fish workers’ incomes. Already, the move to import fish as part of the free trade agreements with Sri Lanka, the ASEAN, and also the Indo-Thailand framework agreement has raised threats to the fish workers’ livelihood. Over a half of the fish caught by traditional fish workers in Kerala is sardine, mackerel, anchovy and other pelagic (surface) fish. Tuna is the mainstay of fish workers in Lakshadweep. Three-fourths of India’s pelagic fish catch is from the western coast.

Mr. George said he had extensive discussions with Commerce Secretary G.K. Pillai before the exemptions were announced at the wrap-up meeting.

He said the fact that only one representative of the eight-million fishing community was invited to such an important consultative meeting showed how trade talks and trade agreements kept out those whose lives would be altered by such agreements.

He noted that the State government had taken a very positive stand by asking the Centre to exempt fish from the ambit of duty-free imports.

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