Trade Hot Topics Issue#78: Opportunities and Challenges for Intra- ACP Trade in Fish and Fishery Products

Several African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries rely heavily on fish trade for food security and economic development. In addition to their value in trade, fisheries provide an important source of protein, employment, and foreign income for most ACP countries. With their endowment of inland fisheries, significant tuna fisheries, and major pelagic fisheries, together with a large import market for the re-export of fish, ACP countries have been increasingly involved in the growing trade in fish and fish commodities. The ACP countries have long been dependent on access agreements with major fishing nations, and fisheries aid from developed countries.

Increasingly, the ACP countries are being confronted with competition from Asian countries for major export fish markets. Sixty-eight per cent of ACP members’ fish exports are currently to the European Union, which is embracing broad-based liberalisation measures that will inevitably lead to erosion of preference margins ACP countries have enjoyed for many years. Therefore, they must look into various options to reposition themselves in international fish trade. There are other export markets for ACP fish products, such as the USA, China, East Asia and other non-EU European nations, currently accounting for 24 per cent of ACP export value. These markets could expand for ACP suppliers.

Intra-ACP trade is another potential opportunity for the ACP group of states. In the past decade, the significance of the intra-ACP export trade in fish and fish products (in value terms) has grown from 1 per cent to 8 per cent. ACP member countries annually import about US$2 billion worth of fish and fish products from the rest of the world and thus this indicates a significant market opportunity. This issue of Commonwealth Trade Hot Topics highlights the opportunities and challenges associated with intra-ACP fish trade.