ABSTRACT

Fisheries are important sources of food, nutrition, income, and livelihood for hundreds of millions of people around the world. Fisheries are of immense scale and economic importance, which also means they have a significant environmental impact that must be managed effectively to ensure sustainability. The Food and Agriculture Organization State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture report 2016 states that about 87% of estimated world fish production was used for direct human consumption. The fisheries and aquaculture sector in the European Union is very significant in terms of fisheries production. In the fisheries area, there is a series of environmental measures introduced in various countries, which in one way or another act as trade barriers to attain a sustainable utilization of fish resources. Instead of harmonizing trade and environmental regulations, the latter could be used, on top of tariff barriers, to create additional obstacles to fisheries products trade.