Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 9 • Number 21 • 27th November 2009

Chile to Restrict Salmon Roe Imports

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The Chilean National Fisheries Service says it will present a letter to the WTO next month which will outline the country’s plans to restrict imports of salmon roe from countries with pancreas disease, a fatal viral disease in salmon that can threaten salmon roe supplies.

Currently, only 20 percent of salmon roe used in Chile’s local industry is imported - mostly from Denmark, Scotland, Canada, and Norway. However, after Norway had uncovered outbreaks of the disease in over 100 municipalities in 2008, the Chilean government decided to set in place precautionary measures that would halt the entry of salmon roe within its borders. Chile says it will soon release a report that denies the presence of pancreas disease in the country. For now, it is also overseeing salmon farming centres and ports.

Chile’s salmon industry has struggled against outbreaks of infectious salmon anaemia (ISA) virus since 2007 and, as such, is anxious to keep other diseases out of the country.

“The sector is very weak in sanitary and financial terms, were a new disease to appear, it could be the end of the Chilean salmon farming industry,” reports the national Chilean newspaper, La Tercera.

Felix Inostroza, director of Chile’s National Fisheries Service, said that the department’s study will allow the country to block imports of salmon roe. But the country must first notify the WTO of its plans to comply with trade rules and avoid accusations of applying para-tariff measures on salmon exporting countries.

While the Chilean government is working on limiting imports from nations with the illness, Inostroza also said that “it is necessary to negotiate, for perhaps there are countries with [pancreas disease] that have disease-free areas.”

ICTSD Reporting; “Salmon roe import restriction adopted,” FIS SWITZERLAND, 23 November 2009.