A great deal of confusion exists with the conflicting international press articles on the European Community and individual European state public commentaries. Malta and Spain remain committed to an anti-CITES listing. France and Italy’s positions are not clear.
They appear to be searching for an 18 month moratorium on bluefin tuna fishing without a CITES listing. If this is accomplished this may make both eligible for an EC financial subsidy. Japan has announced that they will take a formal “Reservation” or objection to any CITES 1 listing. This will leave the worlds largest market open to accept bluefin from other countries also taking such a “reservation”. Or worse, encouraging countries to resume Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated catches (i.e. black market), that which ICCAT has made great progress on limiting over the years.
The US position on CITES is unclear given an apparent impasse between US Fish and Wildlife and NOAA. There is intense pressure from extreme environmental groups and certain congressional offices. You can be assured of one fact and that is that ABTA is in the middle of the key battles.