EU to protect Salmon fisheries

The European Commission has proposed trade restrictions for non-EU countries, following concerns that Europe is being flooded with cheap salmon imports.

Ireland and the UK in March complained to the commission that salmon fisheries are on the verge of bankruptcy thanks to low price fish imported from outside the EU.

“The UK is facing a situation where producers are going out of business, especially in Scotland and Northern Ireland”, a British government representative told Eupolitix.com on Friday.

“We’ve therefore asked the commission to impose safeguard measures to give us room to restructure.”

Sanctions could affect Norway, Iceland and the Faroe Islands.

National governments will be looking at the proposed measures “in the next few days”, she added.

Details cannot yet be made public, and the commission is capable of imposing the trade measures without national approval.

A commission spokesman said that salmon prices have fallen by almost a third since 2000, due to cheap products flooding the market.

70 per cent of Norwegian salmon exports go to the EU.

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