EU EU--India FTA and Indian small--scale fisheries small sector By Susana Barria Independent researcher, New Delhi February 17th 2012, New Dlehi

Indian small scale fisheries sector








Indian fleet size: 1,85,438 of which 58,911 mechanised and 1,04,270 nonnon-motorized Marine fisherfolk population – 35,19,116 Livelihood for 44.9 lack people Affordable source of proteins 61.7% of families involved in fishing have no craft in possession Women are 73.6% of workers in marketing and 76% of workers in traditional processing 65.7 lack tones of fish produced in 20052005-2006, of which 5.12 lack tones exported

Indian small scale fisheries sector Key issues
Decline in catch -> threat of over fishing
Tension over access to fishing grounds
Loss of livelihoods in the traditional smallscale sector
Conflict between local nutrition needs and export considerations – food security

The EU’s fisheries sector






86,587 vessels in 2008 (EU 27) – highhigh-tech vessels Close to 80% of species over fished in northern European waters 60% of fish landed in the EU comes from outside its EEZ (90’) Main destination for Indian fish exports (33%) Low import tariffs – high nonnon-tariff barriers

Access to other countries waters Fishing agreements were driven by:
The need to ensure continuity of fishing activities by EU vessels that were already in these distant waters at the time of enactment of UNCLOS


The need to export overcapacity from EU waters to other regions, especially after collapse of many fisheries in northern European waters

While subsidies had lead to excessive fleet capacity, new subsidies given for decommissioning of vessels and accessing to fishing grounds in nonnon-EU countries

Access to other countries waters “As a result of the fisheries subsidies negotiations at the WTO, there is a considerable risk that distant water fishing nation fiscal support for fishing access fees will be attacked. (…) As a result, there is a need to redesign fishing access arrangements so that they become WTO compatible.” Roman Grynberg, Commonwealth Secretariat

The Chile – EU Economic Partnership Agreement is an instance of how FTAs are a WTO compatible framework to access fishing grounds without even paying financial compensation.

Access to India’s waters As per the Indian Letter of Permit Scheme, Scheme, Foreign company having vessels fishing in Indian EEZ are conditional to:
being in a joint venture with an Indian citizen or company
holding up to maximum 49% share capital in that Indian company
specified categories of fishing operations
Permission has to be granted by the Ag Ministry

Article 4: Market Access Measures a Party shall not maintain or adopt unless otherwise specified: (a) limitations on the number of establishments (companies)…; (b) limitations on the total value of transactions or assets …; (c) limitations on the total number of operations or on the total quantity of output…; output…; (d) limitations on the participation of foreign capital in terms of maximum percentage limit on foreign shareholding…; and (e) measures which restrict or require specific types of establishment or joint ventures. ventures.

Market access for EU companies The EU fishing industry works along the supply chain: from fishing and processing to packaging and retailing Import duty rates to be reduced from 29.6% to 16% (average)
EU requested additional import duty cuts on: croaker, dara, ghole, hilsa, pomfret, ribbonfish, seerfish, octopus, squid, cuttlefish and jellyfish


Import duty reductions come in addition to the right to land fish at Indian ports and raises concerns among fish vendors dependent on the fresh fish market.

Access to the EU market ? The EU is a major sea food importer:  Processing industry (tuna and shrimp)  Fishmeal industry (sardine, (sardine, mackerel, tuna) for salmon feed EU regularly reduces import duties rate and opens import quotas autonomously more so with countries were EU companies have invested significantly







India has a fragmented export sector EU average rate for Indian fisheries imports: 4.5% New import control: “Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) regulation”, includes date and place of catch, and crew and boat that operated the catch Prohibition of export bans

Impacts on Indian fishworkers










Competition for fishing grounds Lesser fish available for fish vendors to procure Competition in the Indian fresh fish market Concentration of the export trade Reinforces the exportexport-led model for the fisheries sector -> at the cost of sustainability and food security Promotes centralised propro-industry policies Policy freeze on progressive policies

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Variation in India's Seafood exports Value

900,000 800,000 700,000 600,000 500,000 400,000 300,000 200,000 100,000 2 -6 3 -6 4 -6 7 -7 0 -7 3 -7 6 -7 9 -8 2 -8 5 -8 8 -9 1 -9 4 -9 7 -0 0 -0 3 -0 6 -0 9 6 61 962 963 966 969 972 975 978 981 984 987 990 993 996 999 002 005 008 9 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2

9,000 8,000 7,000 6,000 5,000 4,000 3,000 2,000 1,000 -

R s. C ro re

Tonnes

Volume

India's Fisheries sector Production in tonnes Aquaculture prod.

Marine prod.

Total prod.

7,000,000 6,000,000 5,000,000 4,000,000 3,000,000 2,000,000 1,000,000

19 91

-9 19 2 92 1 9 93 93 -9 19 4 94 -9 19 5 95 1 9 96 96 -9 19 7 97 -9 19 8 98 1 9 99 99 -0 20 0 00 -0 20 1 01 2 0 02 02 -0 20 3 03 -0 20 4 04 2 0 05 05 2 0 06 06 -0 7*

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EU EU--India FTA provisions that impact fisheries






Investment chapter, Article 4: Market Access Investment chapter, Article 3: National Treatment Trade in Goods: cuts in import duties – 90% Trade in goods: prohibition of restrictions on exports Trade in goods: import control under IUU regulations

Article 3: National Treatment Each Party shall accord to investors and investments of the other Party, in relation to the establishment, acquisition or expansion of investments in the sectors listed in Annex, treatment no less favourable than that it accords to its own investors and investments. -> Same or better treatment -> Pre Pre--establishment rights