According to Borg the Commission has requested further clarifications regarding Malta’s claims to have “re-exported” over 5,000 tons of bluefin tuna to Japan last year. The Commission has suggested that this quantity might have been erroneously classified as Maltese “re-exports”, when it should really have been registered as goods in transit.
As per local news agency Malta officially claims to have exported 11,900 tons of bluefin tuna – a critically endangered species – to Japan in 2007-2008. It is told that out of these, 6,700 tons consisted in locally ranched fish, but the remaining 5,000 tons took the form of transshipped tuna from third countries including Italy, France, Libya and Morocco. And yet all 11,900 tons are listed in Japanese trade records as having originated from Malta.
Commenting on this Joe Borg has raised the selfsame question that whether these 5,000 tons of tuna legitimately registered as Maltese re-exports? Or should they have been recorded as transshipments, and therefore not Maltese exports at all? The Commission is currently seeking to clarify this question with the Maltese authorities. Media claimed that the Commissioner had said he had evaluated all the data, but saw nothing wrong with the statistics.
