European Commission, Press release, Brussels, 14 October 2014:
In its fight against illegal
fishing activities worldwide, the European Commission has today proposed
to ban imports of fisheries products from Sri Lanka
to tackle the commercial benefits stemming from illegal fishing. The
move comes after four years of intense dialogue with the country after
which it could not demonstrate that it sufficiently addressed illegal,
unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. In contrast, the Commission
today confirmed that Belize, Fiji, Panama, Togo and Vanuatu,
which had received warnings at the same time as Sri Lanka, have
successfully taken measures to tackle illegal fishing. Consequently, the
Commission proposes to lift the trade measures imposed in March this
year against Belize.