Fishing talks with Japan

Press, 1 June 1984, Page 14

Fishing talks with Japan

The report in a Japanese fishing industry newspaper that talks held in Wellington about Japanese fishing in New Zealand waters had failed is puzzling. The report appeared in the “Nikkan Suisan Keizai” and was summarised in an article by Bruce Roscoe in “The Press” yesterday. It is hard to know in what sense the talks could fail because they were not negotiations at all, but discussions by which the New Zealand Government informs itself of the views of the Japanese fishing industry and the Japanese Government. The talks are held each year before quotas for Japan are set and before any fees have been calculated. New Zealand Government officials listened to the views of representatives of the fishing industry in Japan, of staff from the Japanese Embassy in Wellington, and of other representatives of the Japanese Government who came from Tokyo. The discussions were primarily about quotas and fees. They also touched on the extension of the fishing agreement between New Zealand and Japan, which will expire in September. New Zealand imposes a fee on each licensed vessel which fishes in New Zealand waters. Last year, the fee for tuna boats was raised by 64 per cent to $59,000 a vessel. As a percentage, the increase looks large. The justification made at the time was the declining value of the New Zealand dollar and the increased value of the tuna in the Japanese

market. Japan has not liked some of the fees imposed. However, nothing new came up about that in the talks in Wellington during May. The fees applied from October 1, last year. Neither the quotas nor the fees have been set for the new season. No indication was given during the talks that the fees would be substantially increased. How the talks could have failed is far from clear: at most, the Japanese could have been said to have stated their positions and the New Zealand official took note of them. The fact that the talks were held at all is a reasonable indication that Japan will be given an allocation of fish this year and the inference may also be taken that there will be an extension of the fishing agreement. The quotas and the fees will be set within the next few months. On the other hand, the New Zealand Government has repeatedly said that the policy is to allow the domestic fleet to expand to fish as much of the Exclusive Economic Zone as possible and that foreign fishermen would gradually be phased out. Although neither the Japanese nor any other foreign fishing industries are expected to have the right in perpetuity to fish in New Zealand waters, the day when all foreign fishermen are phased out of New Zealand waters is still a long way off. There is still time for negotiations to fail or succeed this year, and probably time for some years for the Japanese to catch more fish in the New Zealand zone.