Specialists and executives warned that if these practices increase, the problem might grow and escalate to more limitations such as trade retaliation under the Mexico, United States and Canada Treaty (T-MEC) and even an embargo on Mexican fish products.
As of this moment, Mexican flagged vessels fishing in the Gulf of Mexico on the US side will not be able to enter its ports or make use of its port services.
This is the result of a NOAA report to the US Congress last August, in which Mexico was classified as a country that engages in illegal fishing, Oceana’s Director of Transparency Mariana Aziz noted.
We are seeing the consequences of authority’s failure to act, said Aziz.
The Mexican undersecretary of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Economy, Luz Maria de la Mora, clarified that the problem is with small boats operating in the Gulf, is related to laws on who can fish in international waters, territorial waters or economic zones.
It is very unfortunate that this happened and we expect that authorities and fishing communities in the Gulf can understand each other to make it clear how far their boats can go to avoid these situations,” she commented.
jg/etc/mgt/lma
