Rift as gov’t guts fish import ban
NEARLY a month on after the government lifted a ban on a slew of fisheries products, Cambodia remains divided over the ramifications of the move, with fish farmers lamenting a plunge in commodity prices as economic pundits argue that the curb constitutes a constraint on the free market.
The truth of the matter is that the Kingdom imports at least $60 million worth of fisheries products from Vietnam each year to meet domestic demand, VietnamPlus reported, citing the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade.
While Cambodia is not a decisive market for Vietnamese fisheries products, the Kingdom’s demand for its neighbour’s products considerably contributes to the stability of cross-border trade, as well as job creation and income for locals, the online news agency said.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries on January 8 announced a suspension on all imports of the “main four” – “pra” (Pangasius djambal), “po” (Pangasius larnaudii), “andeng” (catfish of the Clarias genus) and “chdo” (giant snakehead or Channa micropeltes) – as well as myriad other fish that can be farmed locally.
The ministry retracted the ban just a month later on February 8.
Lim Sokheng, owner of a fish farm with four floating pens in Phnom Penh’s northernmost Prek Phnov district, told The Post that the price of pra fish hiked up to around 4,600 riel ($1.13) per kilogramme while the ban was in effect.
Sokheng said his farm yields in excess of 1,000 tonnes of the fish per season, most of which supplies markets
in Phnom Penh or is distributed to other provinces.
He said: “Curbing imports helps local products build up a strong market and sustain affordable prices. Only with more government policies to prop up aquaculture farmers will fish have a flourishing market.”
Ministry of Commerce secretary of state Sok Sopheak told a consultative meeting on the ban last month that the government should support the free flow of fisheries products – even the “main four” – across the Kingdom’s borders, as dictated by demand.
“Cambodia should strengthen local
aquaculture’s competitive capability based on the principles of free trade and optimise the development and implementation of technical regulations to ensure food quality and safety,” he said.
Cambodian Aquaculturist Association (CCC) president Sok Raden told The Post in January that the government prioritises the local market over international ones and is encouraging building additional fisheries production capacity to ensure the adequacy of domestic supply.
But he said it should spruce up infrastructure for the fisheries sector, with emphasis on ensuring a sustainable
water system.
“In a bid to boost exports, we can produce our own competitive, high-grade fish feed at reasonable prices – and [benefit from] low electricity costs – as long as our products are of good quality.
“The government is strongly pushing for aquaculture so that we can export fisheries products, but we need financiers who are willing to invest in the sector,” Raden said.
Cambodia exported a total of 3,590 tonnes of fishery products worth more than $8.33 million last year, down 74.53 per cent from 14,100 tonnes in 2019, the agriculture ministry reported.
VIETNAM’S Dong Tam Group (DTG) has announced it is completing the remaining legal procedures to expand the Long An international port, enabling its berths No 8 and No9 to receive 100,000 deadweighttonnage (DWT) ships.
The project is scheduled to be completed in 2023, lifting the total length of the wharf system to 2,368m, enabling the handling of more than 80 million tonnes of goods per year.
DTG also has a plan to build a terminal serving ships transporting gas, oil and other liquids, turning Long An international port into a multi-purpose seaport.
Long An international port covers an area of 147ha, including seven wharves with a total length of 1,670m, which are capable of receiving 30,00070,000 DWT ships, and four barge berths able to accommodate barges of 2,000 tonnes. It boasts experience in handling super-sized and super-weight items which require complex cargo handling.
Last year, the port signed strategic cooperation agreements with partners in the Mekong Delta region, helping businesses reduce costs, improve competitiveness and maximise operational efficiency.
Previously, on January 22, a strategic cooperation agreement was signed between representatives of the port and those from units specialising in developing major wind power projects in Vietnam.
Long An province is situated in an advantageous location in the Southern Key Economic Region, serving as a bridge between Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta’s 12 provinces and one city, as well as Cambodia.
It borders Prey Veng province’s Kampong Trabek district and Svay Rieng province’s Svay Chrum, Kampong Ro and Chantrea districts and Bavet town in the Kingdom.
MEXICANPresident Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on March 1 met his US counterpart Joe Biden at a virtual summit to discuss immigration, Covid-19 and commercial issues.
Biden opened talks by reminding Lopez Obrador, known as “AMLO”, of his four visits to Mexico as vice-president of the country’s northern neighbour.
Biden told AMLO that Mexico’s success was crucial to the hemisphere and stressed that he would view the country as an equal.
“The United States and Mexico are stronger when we stand together,” Biden said at the beginning of their teleconference.
But “we haven’t been perfect neighbours to each other”, he admitted.
During the Obama-Biden administration, he continued, “we looked at Mexico as an equal. You are equal”.
“What you do in Mexico and how you succeed” affects the rest of the hemisphere, Biden said.
It was Biden’s second bilateral meeting with a foreign leader since becoming president on January 20. The first was with Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau.
The talks came after four years of tumultuous MexicoUS relations under former US president Donald Trump, who shut down the southern international border to migration, tore up the NAFTA trade agreement between Mexico, Canada and the US, and labelled Mexican immigrants
drug traffickers and “rapists”.
Still, the flow of migrants and trade – legal and illegal – across the Mexican-US border was to be the focus of the summit.
Joining the call, were top diplomatic, security and immigration officials from both sides.
‘A joint approach’
The meeting came amid reports of a new surge of undocumented migrants attempting to enter the US from Mexico and its southern neighbours,
as Biden eases Trump’s tough anti-immigration regime.
The summit also was to address joint development efforts in impoverished southern Mexico and Central America, the source of most of the migrants; Covid-19 recovery and economic cooperation.
Speaking in the northcentral state of Zacatecas on February 27, AMLO said he would also emphasise how important migrant labour is to the US economy.
The two countries share a porous, nearly 3,200km border, with hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of commerce annually and large numbers of daily legal crossings by individuals.
But it also sees a huge level of illegal migrant crossing, hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers trying to enter the US and large amounts of illicit drug trafficking from south to north.
Andrew Rudman, a Mexico
specialist at the Wilson Center think tank in Washington, said ahead of the meeting: “Security cooperation remains essential if we wish to address drug abuse, corruption and organised crime which impact both nations.
“Migration, which is also impacted by organised crime, also demands a joint approach.”
One issue expected to be discussed was Mexico’s need for more coronavirus vaccines.
OUSTED Myanmar civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi was hit with two new criminal charges in a court appearance via video link on March 1, one month after a military coup triggered relentless mass protests.
Suu Kyi has not been seen in public since being detained on February 1, and her court appearance came as demonstrators marched across the country defying an escalation of deadly force by the junta.
At least 18 people were killed on February 28 as troops and police fired at demonstrators in cities across Myanmar, according to the UN, which cited its own “credible information”.
State broadcaster Myanmar Radio and Television (MRTV) late on March 1 said more than 1,300 people were arrested and eleven killed on February 28, adding that security forces have been directed not to use live rounds against protesters.
Suu Kyi, 75, was already facing obscure criminal charges for possessing unlicensed walkie-talkies, as well as violating coronavirus restrictions by staging a campaign event during last year’s election.
She is now also accused of breaching communications laws as well as intent to incite public unrest, her lawyer Khin Maung Zaw said.
“We cannot say for sure how many more cases Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will face in this period,” he told reporters in Naypyidaw, using a Burmese honorific reserved for women.
Suu Kyi has reportedly been
kept under house arrest in the capital of Naypyidaw, an isolated city purpose-built under Myanmar’s previous junta.
The military has justified its takeover, which ended a decade-long democratic experiment, with unfounded allegations of widespread fraud in last November’s national elections, which Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy won in a landslide.
A committee of deposed lawmakers from her party on March 1 said that due to the “atrocities and acts of terrorism of the military the streets and communities across Myanmar have become battlefields”.
Hundreds of thousands of people have marched over
the past month opposing the coup.
The military has steadily escalated the force used in trying to contain the uprising, beginning with tear gas and water cannons. Weekend violence saw a major escalation as security forces fired rubber bullets and live rounds.
Protesters however remain defiant.
“I’m here as a frontliner because I don’t want my son to grow up in this evil era,” a student called Eric said, adding that he had a 10-monthold baby.
AFP independently confirmed 11 deaths in February 28’s violence, although there were fears the toll was much
higher. There were no reports of deaths on March 1.
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners monitoring group estimates that security forces have killed about 30 people since February 1.
On March 1 demonstrators in Yangon used bamboo poles, sofas and tree branches to erect street barricades, while police responded with stun grenades and tear gas.
In one clash broadcast live on Facebook and verified by AFP, unarmed protesters fled after a volley of shots were fired.
It was unclear if the security forces had fired live rounds or rubber bullets.
Several journalists documenting assaults by security forces have also been detained in recent days, including an Associated Press photographer in Yangon.
Two reporters from China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency were “hit with rubber bullets while they were covering protest near Myaynigone junction this morning”, a journalist friend of theirs said.
Foreign pressure continued to rise, as Germany and Italy summoned Myanmar’s envoys in their capitals to demand an end to the violent repression.
“Such deadly violence against peaceful demonstrators cannot be justified,” said Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert, voicing “consternation” over the crackdown.
The US has been one of the junta’s most outspoken critics.
“We condemn the Burmese security forces’ abhorrent violence against the people of Burma & will continue to promote accountability for those responsible,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken tweeted on February 28, using the country’s old name.
Southeast Asian foreign ministers were set to discuss the Myanmar crisis at informal online talks hosted by Brunei on March 2.
“We hope all sides in Myanmar will exercise utmost restraint and engage in dialogue in order to achieve peaceful resolution of the situation and the return to normalcy for the interests of the Myanmar people,” the Thai foreign ministry said in a statement.