Toward a Rational Seafood Trade Policy

With a record trade deficit of almost $146 billion in 1986, and continued high deficits in 1987, there is growing concern about how continued deficits will affect the U. S. economy. Because fishery products had a record $6.3 billion deficit in 1986, the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has made the reduction of the fisheries trade deficit one of its top priorities. A recent NMFS trade objective was to "increase exports and domestic consumption of U.S. fishery products" which would lead to a reduction in the trade deficit. In this paper we explore this policy in terms of practicality and desirability.

Synthesis report with pro-poor trade research findings and policy recommandations

The purpose of the project was to investigate international trade in fisheries products and its relationship to poverty alleviation and livelihoods of poor aquatic resource users in developing countries in Asia, and to identify options to improve the effectiveness of poverty reduction through international seafood trade. The project directly addressed the EC-PREP priority area of trade and development, and indirectly provided valuable insight to two other priority areas: food security and sustainable rural development; and institutional capacity building. [PDF contains 60 pages.]

U.S. Fisheries Management and Foreign Trade Linkages: Policy Implications for Groundfish Fisheries in the North Pacific EEZ

The groundfish resources of the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) off Alaska, dominated by Alaska or walleye pollock, Theragra chalcogramma, Pacific cod, Gadus macrocephalus, and flatfishes, Pleuronectidae, can sustain annual commercial harvests well in excess of 2 million metric tons (t). As recently as 1979, foreign fisheries took 99 percent of the annual harvest supported by these resources. This has changed dramatically during the 1980's. The foreign fisheries have received rapidly decreasing allocations, first as joint venture fisheries expanded and, more recently, as the domestic fisheries have grown. Joint venture fisheries are fisheries in which domestic fishing vessels deliver their catch directly to foreign processing vessels in the EEZ. By 1986, the joint venture and domestic fisheries accounted for 66 percent and 8 percent, respectively, of the annual harvest. The preliminary corresponding figures for 1987 are 78 and 18 percent.

Marine ornamentals trade in the Philippines and options for its poor stakeholders

The objective of this project in the Philippines is to promote the development of policy changes and other actions related to the trade in ornamental fish with Europe which support poor people’s livelihoods. [PDF contains 118 pages.]

Economic and Trade Strategies in World Fisheries

This special section of the Marine Fisheries Review contains the edited proceedings of a symposium held on 16 September 1987 at the annual meetings of the American Fisheries Society in Winston-Salem, N.C. The symposium was sponsored by the National Marine Fisheries Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade. The aim of this session was to provide an overview of several international trade issues that affect the development of fisheries economic policy. Thus, the general areas of discussion included: The role of fisheries in the U.S. balance of trade, current negotiations on fisheries trade and tariffs, and U.S. and foreign economic trade strategies and policies.

Prawn culture and policy options: technology import and culture through fishermen vis a vis industry

Recent developments in aquaculture has created an awareness that prawn culture is a dollar spinner, in which industry can step in to earn foreign exchange by producing an expensive food iten which has a high market demand abroad. The Government has to take a policy decision whether the prawn culture should be done through small fishermen to improve their socio-economic condition or through private industry with the high technology input and predefined objectives of export trade. Perhaps a simultaneous operation of the two could be allowed best in the interest of India. Perhaps in the interest of quick development and adoption of high production technology, through fishermen organization, the development is encouraged through the implimentation of welfare and area development schemes. In some selected areas private industry may be encoureged to use high production technology to develop prawns.