The Fisheries Agency has reiterated that it plans to increase penalties for illegal fishing, amid concerns about a warning from the EU and the threat of possibile sanctions.
“The agency will revise the Fisheries Act (漁業法) to step up penalties,” Fisheries Agency Deputy Director-General Tsay Tzu-yaw (蔡日曜) said, adding that it also wants to increase its inspection personnel.
“The agency will complete communications and negotiations with the EU before the six-month deadline given for improvement, in the hope that Taiwan can be removed from the ‘yellow card’ list,” he said.
The EU issued a “yellow card” to Taiwan on Oct. 1, warning that it risks being identified as an uncooperative nation in the fight against “illegal, unreported and unregulated [IUU]” fishing.
It said there were “serious shortcomings in the fisheries legal framework, a system of sanctions that does not deter IUU fishing and lack of effective monitoring, control and surveillance of the long-distance fleet.”
The EU thinks that Taiwan’s fines for illegal fishing are too low compared with those imposed in Japan and South Korea, Tsay said.
At the core of the warning is a Taiwanese fishing vessel, the Shuen De Ching No. 888, which was caught with illegally harvested shark fins near Papua New Guinea in early September. The ship was fined NT$150,000 and its catch was confiscated.
The EU could consider trade sanctions on fishery imports from Taiwan if the identified shortcomings are not addressed.
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
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