International trade law compatibility of market-related measures to combat illegal,unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing

Measures to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing increasingly seek to constrain access to markets. These measures include enhanced seafood traceability and catch documentation schemes, the blocking of port access and landings, the identification and assessment of vessels engaged in IUU fishing and the prohibition on imports, transhipments or trade of fish products. It is important that such measures are in accordance with international law, including the agreements of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). This article evaluates a range of market-related measures for compatibility with international trade law, including the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade. The law requires measures to be non-discriminatory and, for certain technical regulations, not more trade-restrictive than necessary to achieve a legitimate objective. However, there are exceptions to these rules, including for measures relating to the conservation of exhaustible natural resources or for measures necessary for the protection of animal life or health, public morals, or to secure compliance with certain laws or regulations. While the design of current unilateral measures to combat IUU fishing appears to accord with trade law requirements, this article argues that there is scope for a wider and more collective approach. In this vein, new provisions in the recently concluded Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) are identified. The article concludes with recommendations for governments, international organisations, private actors and the global community wishing to take action in this area.     

The trans-Pacific Chinook Trough megatrend

The Chinook Trough is a trans-Pacific megatrend. By using heretofore unpublished bathymetry and geophysical data, the trend of the Chinook Trough megatrend has been determined from the Juan de Fuca Ridge in the Gulf of Alaska to the Izu-Bonin trench. The feature passes through the Emperor Fracture Zone, intersects the Krusenstern Fracture Zone at the Hess Rise, passes through the Emperor Seamounts, intersects the Mamua Fracture Zone and several unnamed NNW–SSE-trending fractures at the Shatskiy Rise. After an undetermined passage through Nadeshda Basin, it intersects another NNW–SSE-trending fracture zone, Kashima Fracture Zone, at Nelson Guyot, and ends as Uyeda Ridge. Instead of being a trough, the feature is a fracture zone, herein called a megatrend. The feature is colinear to the Mendocino and Clipperton Fracture Zones.