Moroccan, Portuguese fisheries ministers meet in Fez
Morocco-Portugal, Economics, 4/20/2001

Moroccan minister of maritime fisheries, Saed Chbaatou, held a meeting in Fez Thursday with visiting Portuguese minister of agriculture, rural development and fisheries, Luis Manuel Capoulas Santos.

The two sides exchanged information and data on the fishery sector and surveyed bilateral relations in the sector of fisheries.

After the meeting, Chbaatou renewed in a statement to reporters Morocco's will to carry on negotiations with the European Union to strike a fair fishery accord in the frame of partnership.

He said "Morocco has politically decided to conclude the accord, but within the limits of biological constraints."

"The other side must understand that there are biological limits that cannot be trespassed," he said, stressing the need to "preserve our resources and to cooperate within what is biologically possible."

The Portuguese official, who was accompanied by secretary of state for fisheries, Jose Apolinario, and director general of fisheries and fish-farming, Enrico Monteiro, had been received earlier Thursday by King Mohammed VI.

Some thirty Portuguese trawlers used to operate in Moroccan grounds under the previous Morocco-EU fisheries accord, that expired in November 1999.

Morocco refuses to renew the accord under its previous formula out of concern to safeguard its depleting sea resources. Since September 2000, Morocco and the EU held several technical and political rounds of negotiations in a bid to strike a new fishery accord but the negotiations reached no result.

Morocco has repeatedly voiced its willingness to carry on the negotiations insisting however that the UE must understand Morocco's concerns over the situation of the fishery sector and the biological and economic goals it targets.

In another development, president of the autonomous government of Galicia, Manuel Fraga, said Morocco is a sovereign country and no side has the right to impose on it any kind of fishery agreement.

Fraga, who is member of the ruling popular party, said that Morocco has only kept its word as it announced in 1995 that it would not renew the fishery agreement with the European Union and that the previous accord provided for no clause on the renewal.

Previous Stories:
  Portugal seeks access to Morocco for traditional fishermen, EU concedes Morocco proposed access to 100 units   (4/12/2001)
  Portuguese businessmen in Morocco early June   (5/24/2000)
  Visiting Portuguese minister Coelho meets Cabinet members   (5/9/2000)

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