US and EU Rules on Seafood Traceability and Anti-IUU Market Measures

The goal of this study was to evaluate, compare and analyze the structures and outcomes of the EU and US rules on preventing Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fisheries products from entering their respective markets.  This would allow WWF(US) to provide input to US officials in advance of a joint meeting between the EU and US. Advice was initially provided through a detailed issues brief with a more detailed technical report that expanded upon the information in the issues brief after the joint meeting had concluded.

The issues brief and technical report reviewed the two systems in place and addressed the following:

The report builds upon a previous Issues Brief, and covers the following aspects of the two systems:

• Their purpose, goals and scope;
• The data elements and information requirements for legal origin of products;
• The verification systems and how the reliability of information is evaluated;
• The traceability requirements and how they are evaluated;
• The enforcement capabilities and authorities (underlying laws for the rules) in place including authority to screen, seize, sanction and dispose; and
• The risk screening processes and the related sanctions for violators.

Recommendations were made in the technical report which could help align the two systems and ways in which the US Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP) could ‘learn’ from the current EU scheme were suggested.