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Sri Lanka hopes to have EU fishing ban lifted by mid next year

Xinhua, December 22, 2015 Adjust font size:

Sri Lanka is expecting a fishing ban imposed by the European Parliament to be lifted by mid next year, local media reported on Tuesday.

"During the coming months, the proposal to lift the fishing ban will be presented to the European Parliament," Fisheries Minister Mahinda Amaraweera was quoted as saying.

"We are losing over 100 million U.S. dollars per year because of this ban. So we are expecting a favorable response from them before the Sinhala and Tamil New Year (local new year) in 2016."

Amaraweera added that they have installed Vessel Monitoring Systems on the vessels operating in international waters in order to stop fishing in prohibited areas.

The European Union Council last month encouraged Sri Lanka to take further measures necessary to address the shortcomings established in the context of the EU legislation on Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing.

The council added that the ban on fishery exports to the EU could be lifted if further necessary steps are taken.

Sri Lanka's fish exports to the European Union make up 68 percent of its total fish exports, which brings in 23 billion rupees (160 million U.S. dollars) annually.

The remaining 32 percent is sent to the United States, Japan and other non-EU countries.

The EU ban took effect in January this year over the failure of the previous government to prevent local fishermen from violating international fisheries laws.

The new government however has said that it has taken action to ensure that the fishermen comply with all the conditions laid down by the EU. Endit