EU may relax lead content rule on tuna shipments from Asean

The European Union (EU), the world’s largest importer of agricultural and fishery products from Southeast Asia, is now willing to work out a compromise on the enforcement of stricter sanitary and phytosanitary standards (SPS) intended to make it tougher for exporters of tuna and other marine products to penetrate the European market.

In particular, the 25-member EU is seriously considering the new proposal of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) led by the Philippines, to reduce the maximum allowable lead content in tuna and other fishery exports to 0.03 parts per million (ppm). The ASEAN had previously wanted to maintain the lead content level at 0.05 ppm, while the EU insisted on 0.02 ppm.

"There will be a meeting next month of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex) and as of the last talks, several members of the EU said they are prepared to compromise and settle perhaps, for a higher 0.03 ppm level. We are looking at evidence that it would be a real challenge for tuna exporters from the ASEAN region to be able to comply with a lower allowable lead content in tuna," said Patrick Deboyser, minister-counselor of the health and food safety in the delegation of the European Commission to Thailand.

EU officials are in Manila for a two-day workshop on EU food safety policy and legislation for trade in fisheries products.

Deboyser said that despite the EU’s willingness to come to terms with its tuna suppliers from ASEAN, exporters will have to submit "hard evidence that it is almost impossible to detect lead content and other heavy metals at the 0.02 ppm level."

"The issue of lead content is a big issue among EU member countries. Tuna exporters will have to be very convincing in presenting proof that there is real difficulty in complying with the 0.02 ppm level, the EU cannot be expected to treat this matter lightly," stressed Deboyser.

The Philippines, backed by other tuna-exporting countries in the ASEAN such as Thailand, will submit in the next few months a proposal for a new lead content level of 0.03 ppm to the World Health Organization sub-committee Joint Exports Committee on Food Additives and Contaminants (JECFAC).

Food Development Center Director Dr. Alicia Lustre, who represents the Philippine government in the Codex Committee on Food Additives and Contaminants (CCFAC) of the World Trade Organization’s Codex Alementarius Commission (CAC), is optimistic that the EU Commission would finally approve the country’s proposal. CAC is the international body tasked with developing a food code known as the Codex Alimentarius, the global reference point for harmonized or uniform food standards to ensure the protection of public health and fair practices in food trade.

"There is a greater likelihood that the EU would accept our proposal after we present to them new evidence that the new level we are proposing is not that much different so as to compromise their concern about the effects of lead content, especially in children," said Lustre.

Lustre said the more rigid lead content level is a real threat to the Philippines’ $400-million tuna industry. She said the EU’s move will displace the Philippine tuna industry, the bulk of which is located in General Santos City in Southern Mindanao.