Tonga welcomes signing of South Pacific Tuna Treaty

Tonga has welcomed the breakthrough in the once fragile multilateral tuna fisheries deal between 16 Pacific island countries and the United States.

After months of negotiations, amendments to the South Pacific Tuna Treaty were signed in Nadi, Fiji yesterday by the US and Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency members.

The Minister for Fisheries of Tonga Semisi Tauelangi Fakahau signed on behalf of the Government of Tonga.

“This is a reminder that what Pacific island countries are doing helps them stay together and reinforces their strength which is regional cooperation,” Mr Fakahau said.

US Ambassador to Fiji and Tonga Judith Cefkin said the Treaty has been the cornerstone of US cooperation with Pacific island nations.

“It is also the foundation for a great model for sustainable management of fisheries and we know how important that is to the Pacific as well as to the United States, so I am really happy about that, “Ambassador Cefkin said.

Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) Director General James Movick said the arrangement will allow the continuation of the Treaty for another six years.

“It has taken us seven years to reach this point and again this highlights the increasing complexity and the changing nature of this relationship even over the period of this negotiation,” Mr Movick said.

The multilateral Treaty which paved the way for US vessels to fish in the Pacific since the late 1980s as well as deliver economic assistance from the US Government ran into hurdles in the last seven years.

These came to a head earlier in the year after the United States failed to pay for fishing days it had agreed to and issued notice of its intention to formally pull out of the treaty.

Ambassador Cefkin said US Secretary John Kerry has signed a letter to the FFA officially rescinding Washington’s notice of intention to withdraw.

A statement by FFA in June this year said the access and aid envelope for its members had been going through increasingly difficult negotiations and interim agreements since the last multi-year agreement ended in 2012.

FFA Deputy DG Wez Norris said the overall package could be worth as much as US70m for 2017 “if the fleet takes up all its available opportunities.”

“By the end of the deal the Treaty will be providing returns of over US14,000 per fishing day …At the start of the negotiation, that amount was somewhere in the vicinity of US2,000 per day, ” Norris said.

The US government aid received by Pacific Island Parties under the treaty will increase from US$18 million per year to US$21 million. 

A Memorandum of Understanding, also signed yesterday, provides a mechanism for the amendments to the Treaty to come into effect from January 1, 2017.

All parties must ratify the amendments before they are incorporated into the Treaty’s text.

 

Photo: Minister for Fisheries of Tonga Semisi Tauelangi Fakahau (left) and US Ambassador Judith Cefkin

     

Author: 
Rita Narayan