THE USE OF TRADE RELATED MEASURES IN FISHERIES MANAGEMENT

The use of trade-related measures, including catch and/or trade documentation schemes and the imposition of trade sanctions on vessels or Flag States failing to comply with the conservation and management measures of RFBs, has increased noticeably over the last decade. Experience has shown that trade-related measures have a role to play in improving catch estimates and addressing IUU fishing. There is even some evidence that trade sanctions have provided incentives for some countries to join RFBs and/or to co-operate in the implementation of the conservation and management measures of RFBs. In recent years UNGA resolutions on sustainable fisheries urged “States, individually and through regional fisheries management organizations and arrangements, to adopt and implement internationally agreed market-related measures in accordance with international law, including principles rights and obligations established in the WTO agreements, as called for in the IPOA-IUU.” CCAMLR has already introduced a series of trade related measures to combat IUU such as CDS, however there remains evidence that IUU activities continue in the Convention area and undermine the efforts of the Commission for the Conservation of the Antarctic Marine Living Resources. Thus trade and market measures remain an important element that the commission has still not used and through which CCAMLR and its members can seek to promote the Convention’s conservation objectives.