(Islands Business) The United States has announced it has reached an agreement on a financial package with Pacific Island Countries that are Parties to the Tuna Treaty.
A statement from its Embassy in Suva today said the significant package ‘exceeds the benchmarks articulated by Pacific Islands Leaders.’
Key issues pushed by Pacific in the negotiations were the fishing opportunities afforded to the U.S. purse-seine fleet in waters under the jurisdiction of the Pacific Island Parties and the overall financial package. On June 22, at the most recent negotiations in New Zealand, the United States and the Pacific Island Parties reached agreement on this critical issue, said the U.S Embassy statement. The U.S has now agreed to provide USD 63 million annually to the Pacific Island Parties over the next 10 years, for a total of USD 630 million.
In addition, a payment per vessel day that is more that 50 percent, higher than the USD 5,000 per day regional benchmark price established by Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA). The U.S will also pay a 17 percent return on the value of the fish caught by U.S. vessels licensed under the Treaty under current conditions, which it says exceeds the 10 percent average rate of return desired by Pacific Island Leaders.
It will also pay fair compensation for fishing opportunities in the waters under the jurisdiction of non-PNA States. “This agreement on the overall financial package is a significant advancement in the negotiations, and creates a strong foundation on which the United States and our Pacific Island partners can continue to build a prosperous and sustainable future for the peoples of the Pacific region.”
“The United States looks forward to working with the Pacific Island Parties to address remaining technical issues and to reaching an early agreement to extend the Treaty,” said the U.S statement. Since 1988, the United States’ tuna purse seine fleet has operated in the Western and Central Pacific under the terms of a Treaty with 16 independent States of the Pacific Forum.
This mutually beneficial Treaty arrangement has provided unique access to Pacific fisheries for the U.S. tuna fleet and has served as a vehicle for the Pacific Island Parties to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues, U.S. Government economic development funding and assistance with sustainable fisheries management and combating illegal fishing. The United States is working closely with the Pacific Island Parties to negotiate an extension of this important Treaty beyond the current period, ending in June 2013.