How research projects can contribute to the development of efficient community-led projects?

Abstract

Trade of fish and fisheries products, including fish meal products, are influenced by both traditional trade policies, like tariffs, and non-tariff measures (NTMs). NTMs comprise several categories of measures such as sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) , technical barriers to trade (TBT) as well as non-technical measures. UNCTAD (2013) provides an international classification of NTMs; see Table 1 below. NTMs are governmental measures that determine the conditions under which trade takes place. They have become increasingly important as governments reacted to consumers’ concerns about catching and production practises. Consumers are for example concerned about the application of feed and drugs that have been found as residues in fish and related products or the environmental effect of intensive aquaculture production or fishing (FAO, 2014). In some cases, NTMs have also been used as protectionist measures disguised by health, safety or other public purposes. The goal of our analysis is to identify which NTMs are used for which fishery products by trade partners. In this poster, we present first results from the EU perspective. Although not being presented for specific species, the results are interesting for those trading fish and fisheries products since they provide insights about how much markets are regulated by NTMs.