Rédaction Africa Links 24 with André Amaral
Published on 2024-03-31 09:06:00
Information confirmed by Expresso das Ilhas through the European Union. Derogation will come into force as of January 2025.
Cape Verde will have the right to another renewal of the fishing derogation, confirmed Expresso das Ilhas through a source from the European Union.
“The derogation has been approved and will be published in the Union Journal shortly after the Easter period,” a source from the European Union announced to Expresso das Ilhas.
The new derogation is expected to be valid for the next two or three years.
The fishing derogation allows Cape Verde to export processed fish products to the European Union exempt from customs duties and has been, over the years, the way successive governments have found to keep the canning industry operating in Cape Verde, since most of the companies in the sector are of Spanish origin.
In statements to Expresso das Ilhas, Manuel Monteiro, Deputy to the President of the Board of Directors of Frescomar, confirmed that “it is also known that the European Union will authorize a new derogation, which is in principle in the process of being approved.”
With most of the raw material being imported to work and export to the European Union “until the new derogation is authorized, the company works with some difficulties, as we have to pay a deposit on our products in the European Union,” explained Manuel Monteiro.
Maintenance of jobs
The previous agreement ended on December 31, 2023, and concerned the preparations or preserves of tuna, mackerel, and Jewfish fillets, allowing Cape Verde to annually export up to 5,000 tons of tuna fillets, 3,000 tons of mackerel fillets, 3,000 tons of mackerel fillets, and 1,000 tons of Jewfish.
Asked if the new derogation is important for the continuity of Frescomar in Cape Verde, Manuel Monteiro responds affirmatively.
“We can say yes. As I said at the beginning, Frescomar works with most of the imported raw material because our National Fleet has not been able to supply our needs, the quantities with which we work daily and annually.”
Country-specific agreements
Derogations are always temporary and have been a a source of uncertainty over the years regarding the future of the canning sector in Cape Verde.
Manuel Monteiro ensures that there are alternatives to derogation and that the European Union is indeed looking for other forms of cooperation.
“For example, the European Union recently, in meetings we had with European Union delegates in Brussels, another alternative that the country should explore. For example, through economic partnership,” pointed out Manuel Monteiro.
The initial objective of the European Union, he explains, was to formalize an agreement between the European Union and the countries of ECOWAS, similar to what has been done with other groups of countries, both in Africa and the Americas.
“Through these economic partnership agreements with groups of countries, there is the possibility of obtaining a quota [of fishing] similar to the derogation, but it is already within a package negotiated with the European Union, renewed every four or five years, which is much more stable.”
However, the process has encountered obstacles because Nigeria did not ratify the agreement.
Thus, it is known that the European Union may choose to establish agreements with individual countries instead of negotiating with the ECOWAS bloc.
“The European Union put this possibility to make [an agreement] with Cape Verde” similar to the ones “made with Ivory Coast, Ghana, and recently with Benin.”
Manuel Monteiro has no doubts in affirming that this is “an agreement that should be worked on and discussed, they even left open that this derogation may be the last,” he concluded.
Originally published in the print edition of Expresso das Ilhas No. 1165 dated March 27, 2024.
Read the original article(Portuguese) on Expresso das Ilhas
