Abstract
Globally, the EU plays a leading role in combating illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing activities. Specifically, the EU exercises normative power to influence regulatory strategies and governing frameworks in third countries. In 2015, the EU issued Thailand a yellow card, indicating that economic sanctions would be implemented unless IUU fishing practices were eliminated. Concurrently, revelations about ‘modern slavery’ in Thailand’s fishing industry had received international attention, through media and NGOs, exposing slavery-like practices among migrant fishworkers. Conventionally, the EU’s IUU policy addresses only issues of catch and environmental sustainability. This paper explores how an initial bilateral dialogue was bifurcated into two dialogues: a Fishery Dialogue and a Labour Dialogue. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with involved actors, expert opinions, field-visits and secondary documents, we ask: How were labour issues integrated into the bilateral dialogue, and what consequences emerged from the IUU policy for Thai fisheries management? Tracing the bilateral dialogue between EU and Thai governments, we argue that Thailand’s fisheries reform was a result of both fisheries’ sustainability concerns and the kind of labour rights valued by the EU. Our Normative Power Europe approach shows how norms of labour rights shaped the reform through policies and implementation. We maintain that this unique case-study reveals how the EU incorporates a broad-based normative approach that goes beyond catch sustainability.
Highlights
The “crisis of global fisheries” diagnosed by McGoodwin [1], with its detrimental social, cultural and economic consequences for people around the world, still persists
Our analysis focuses on the role of ‘normative power’, which the European Union (EU) exerts in such contexts and reveals how the EU integrated and translated normative values, such as labour standards, into the bilateral discussions
We explore how the Thai government responded to EU pressure regarding Thailand’s fisheries reform by asking the following questions: How have labour issues been integrated into the bilateral IUU dialogue between the EU and Thailand? What implications have emerged from the IUU policy process for the regu larisation of labour standards in Thai fisheries? How has the EU’s normative power on labour rights influenced the fisheries policy reform in Thailand through the negotiation process led by the EU?
Summary
The “crisis of global fisheries” diagnosed by McGoodwin [1], with its detrimental social, cultural and economic consequences for people around the world, still persists. Little knowledge currently exists on the IUU regulation’s practical performance in the bilateral dialogue processes between the EU and third countries To address this lack, this paper elevates the discussion about working conditions in international fishing industries, thereby contributing to the growing body of literature that has addressed this issue with respect to global fisheries governance We followed online meeting forums (e.g. Facebook live events on IUU and labour issues, as the first author is native Thai) to understand how the dialogue was perceived and discussed among a broad range of impacted people beyond the state negotiations This mixture of interview material, documents and fieldwork data provides us with both a rich and representative sample for analysing the context of the EU’s IUU policy induced reform process in Thailand and the perceptions of the bilateral dialogue
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