The Fishing Daily | 22 September 2025

Europêche warns EU against duty-free Thai tuna access

by Oliver McBride

Europêche has urged the European Commission to exclude tuna products from the EU–Thailand free trade agreement currently entering a new round of talks on 29 September, warning that duty-free access for Thai tuna would destabilise the EU market and undercut sustainable European fleets.

The call follows a recent increase in US tariffs on Thai tuna, which Europêche says will push Bangkok to prioritise access to the EU market.

Thailand is the world’s largest producer and exporter of canned and preserved tuna, exporting nearly 450,000 tonnes annually — about 22% of global production and more than 29% of global exports. Between 2020 and 2023 the EU imported almost 40,000 tonnes of Thai fishery products each year, despite existing 24% tariffs on tuna loins and canned tuna.
Threat To EU Fleet Competitiveness And Jobs

Europêche argues the EU tuna purse seiner fleet operates under stringent, costly standards — quotas, 24/7 VMS monitoring, systematic scientific observers and certified social and environmental requirements — and that granting duty-free access to Thai product would be unfair. The sector supports more than 25,000 direct jobs across the EU, Europêche says, and would be exposed to aggressive competition if Thai cans and loins entered tariff-free.

Xavier Leduc, President of Europêche Tuna Group, said: “Tuna loins and cans processed in Thailand from low-standard Asian fisheries pose a direct threat to sustainable European fleets, which face higher costs due to their rigorous control, social, and senvironmental standards. A Free Trade Agreement with Thailand allowing duty-free tuna products into the EU would only deepen the existing imbalance, further disadvantaging European fleets and undermining fair competition.”

Anne-France Mattlet, Director of Europêche Tuna Group, added: “Under current regulations, the EU cannot block low-standard tuna entering EU market—but it must not let it in duty-free.

Concerns Over Supply Chains, Labour And Food Safety

Europêche warns that Thailand’s processing chain relies heavily on imported whole tuna from states with “opaque practices” — the release cites Taiwan, China, South Korea and Indonesia — and highlights gaps in Thailand’s labour and safety record. The organisation notes that, while Thailand has ratified ILO Convention 188, it has “failed to implement it and ratify other major international conventions on human rights and work at sea.” A 2023 European Commission audit, Europêche says, exposed persistent food-safety weaknesses in Thailand’s processing sector.

The association also stresses the potential knock-on effect on EU supply chains and partnerships in West and East Africa established under Economic Partnership Agreements, naming Côte d’Ivoire, Seychelles and Mauritius as particularly exposed.

Europêche’s Demands: Exclusion Or Tight Rules Of Origin

Europêche has set out two options for Brussels: either exclude tuna loins and canned tuna from the FTA, or insist on strict rules of origin that prevent cumulation and limit preferences to wholly obtained fish. The group warned that anything less would hand a commercial advantage to lower-cost imports and erode the EU fleet’s environmental and social standards.

“European fisheries are coming up against the EU’s paradoxes,” Europêche’s statement says, “while the European Union continues to impose increasingly restrictive regulations on its own companies, it simultaneously allows the import of products that do not meet these same standards.”

Political Context Ahead Of Talks

Negotiations between the European Commission and Thailand will resume against the backdrop of shifting global tariff regimes and heightened attention on supply-chain integrity. EU officials must weigh the commercial benefits of a broader FTA against the risk to a highly regulated domestic fishing sector and to trade ties with third countries that supply raw material to Thai processors.

Europêche’s intervention ensures tuna will be a contested line-item as negotiators meet; Brussels must now decide whether to accept sectoral carve-outs, sharpen rules of origin, or risk undermining a labelled, audited, and comparatively costly European tuna fleet.