Months ago the government took control of the International Merchant Marine Registry (IMMARBE) because it claimed that the European Union would have imposed sanctions on fleets carrying the Belize flag of convenience.
It placed the registry directly in the Ministry of Finance and introduced a Bill on High Seas Fishing. But last month, the European Commission proceeded to blacklist Belize for not doing enough to meet obligations under international law in the fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
Tonight, the news is that Spain is the first country to announce that beginning December twenty-first it will reject imports of fishery products from Belize, Cambodia and Guinea Conakry in compliance with the legal measures imposed by the EC.
In line with the EC decision, authorities of the Member States are obliged to refuse the import of fishery products into the EU as it is evidenced that the catch certificate has been validated by the authorities of a country with a flag that has been identified as uncooperative. It means that fishery products which carry a catch certificate after December twenty first will be rejected while those with a certificate before December twenty-second will be subjected to all routine checks.
In other developments, there is an advisory circulating in the region that in respect of a blacklisting of Belize by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force member states of the twenty-nine jurisdictions are called upon to consider implementing counter measures to protect their financial systems from the ongoing money laundering and terrorist financing risk emanating from Belize. But Belize and Guyana were cited by the CTAFT for deficiencies in meeting the international standards of fighting money laundering and terrorism.
