The General Secretariat of Fisheries under the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment (Magrama) in Spain announced this week its decision to begin rejecting Belize fish imports next week.

On Tuesday, November 26, the European Commission (EC) announced that it had listed Belize, Cambodia and Guinea-Conakry as “non-cooperative” third countries—meaning countries outside of the EU—following a yellow card issued to eight countries last year over allegations that they have not been doing enough to combat Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing.

Spain notes that the EU decision takes effect on December 21, 2013, when the importation of fisheries products certified by the three countries identified as non-cooperating states—would begin to be rejected.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow said at a recent press conference that Belize will do whatever it takes to comply with the demands of the European Union (EU) in a recent call by the European Commission to ban fisheries imports from Belize-flagged vessels on the high seas, over allegations that Belize has not been doing enough to meet standards imposed by EU regulations on IUU fishing.

Belize has indicated that the first major step it took was the enactment of a new and vastly strengthened High Seas Fishing Act, which came into force on November 8. Government has indicated that the law makes it possible for sanctions as high as $3 million.

“This Act will shortly be supplemented by a set of sanctions regulations, prescribing deterrent penalties for illegal activities on the high seas by Belize-flagged vessels. We will also be setting up a fisheries monitoring center, an onsite observer program and a national Plan of Action for IUU, to fully address the concerns of the EU,” a statement from the Government of Belize detailed.

“Early next year, we intend to ask the EU for a reassessment of Belize’s control mechanism for high seas fisheries and hope that Belize will soon be out of the list of ‘non-cooperating third countries’. In fact, the European Commission has invited Belize ‘to take appropriate action to rectify the current situation and to advise the European Commission on the measures taken to ensure compliance with conservation and management measures by its fishing vessels’,” it added.