MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -- A nine-year ban on Mexican tuna exports to the United States came to an end on Thursday, but Mexican fishermen are hardly in a festive mood.
Climatic havoc caused by the El Nino and La Nina weather anomalies have cut into Mexican tuna production just as it would otherwise be poised to cash in on the newly opened U.S. market, the chief of Mexico's fishing chamber, Canainpes, told Reuters in an interview on Friday.The United States blocked tuna imports from Mexico and nine other countries because it said they failed to take steps to prevent dolphins and other sea mammals from getting caught in fishing nets.
U.S. authorities agreed last May to lift the ban after Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Vanuatu (in the South Pacific), France, Spain, Honduras and Ecuador were deemed to be using dolphin-friendly nets.
"It is a triumph of science over protectionism disguised as environmentalism," fishing chamber president Alfonso Rosinol said.
But lifting the ban, "won't have a big repercussion in exports, nor in the business itself," he added.
Mexico may be forced to reimpose limits this year, but in any event, there is still a shortage of tuna, Rosinol said.