BRUSSELS: The European Union has proposed lifting a 15-month ban on fish exports from Sri Lanka after it said the country has cracked down on illegal fishing.
The 28-nation bloc has meanwhile warned the Pacific island nation of Kiribati as well as Sierre Leone and Trinidad and Tobago that they risked bans if they failed to do more to fight illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.
The European Commission, the bloc's executive arm, proposed Thursday Sri Lanka be removed from the blacklist it had imposed in February last year after it amended its legal framework, strengthened sanctions and improved its fleet control.
"The Commission proposes to lift the ban on fish exports from Sri Lanka," a commission spokesperson told AFP.
It will now be up to EU member states to endorse Colombo's removal from the blacklist that imposes the ban, which the spokesperson said could happen within two months.
Besides Sri Lanka, Ghana, Papua New Guinea, Korea, the Philippines, Fiji, Belize, Panama, Togo and Vanuatu have also cracked down on illegal fishing following warnings from Brussels.
But the commission said it still had "serious concerns" about Thailand's efforts to fight illegal fishing and could not rule out further action following its warning last year.
"A meeting with the Thai authorities in May will be a new opportunity for them to show their good will and commitment," the commission said.
The EU meanwhile issued warnings to the tiny Pacific island republic of Kiribati, the west African country of Sierre Leone and the Caribbean island nation of Trinidad and Tobago to do more to fight illegal fishing.
It said the island nations, for example, were failing to do enough to monitor foreign fleets operating in their waters and trace they fish they catch.
"If identified issues are not resolved within six months, the EU can consider taking further steps, including trade sanctions on fisheries imports," the commission warned.
The Commission said illegal fishing accounted for at least 15 percent of the global annual catch of between 11 million and 26 million tonnes of fish and was worth around 10 billion euros a year.
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