Fishing News
Tuna fishermen push Bush on tariff threat
By the Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- Atlantic tuna fishermen want the Bush administration to threaten the European Union with tariffs on such imports as Volkswagens and Brie cheese for alleged violations of an international conservation treaty.
They hope the threat of $100 million in sanctions, which could hit any EU import, will force Europe to comply with the International Convention for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, a commercial treaty involving 33 countries.
"What we really want is our fish," said James A. Donofrio, executive director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance, a group representing 19 million saltwater fishermen that has petitioned U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick for sanctions.
Fishermen, conservationists and others argue that the U.S. has suffered economic harm because of overfishing in violation of the treaty, especially by Spain and Portugal. The result is depleted populations of highly migratory fish like bluefin tuna that swim from one end of the Atlantic to the other.
Domestic commercial tuna fishermen have faced strict conservation limits -- most boats are now restricted to one six-foot, one-inch tuna per day during fishing season. Meanwhile, European tuna fishing has gone virtually unchecked, said Rich Ruais, executive director of the Salem, N.H.-based East Coast Tuna Association.
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