KARACHI, March 13: The European Commission (EC) has informed the Pakistani government that no consignment of fish products from Pakistan will be allowed entry to EU states after April 12.

The de-listing of fish processing units came as a result of inspections by the Food and Veterinary Office (FVO) officials of the EC in the last week of January 2007, and after which the EC decided to de-list all the 11 fisheries establishments from their approved list.

This is a second blow to Pakistan from the EC this month after various restrictions imposed by the EC on landing of PIA flights in the European states.

An official in the Marine Fisheries Department (MFD) said the MFD had received a letter from the EC on Tuesday.

He said the department would be informing exporters tomorrow. However, the chairman of Pakistan Seafood Industries Association (PSIA), Hanif Khan, has been asked to inform the members of the association.

The official said a final report is expected to be delivered by the EC in the next two weeks.

To a question about the steps, to be taken by the MFD or the federal government, to handle the situation, he said that the final report would carry all procedures and requirements which would have to be followed by the government and exporters to ensure re-listing in the approved list.

He said that the report would also highlight deficiencies which the EC mission had found in the processing units in the January inspection.

“The government will chalk out its plan to handle the EC ban on 11 plants after the arrival of final report,” the MFD official said.

Pakistan will suffer a loss of $50 million after losing its share to the EU states out of total exports of $196 million.

PSIA chairman Hanif Khan said the work on future consignments of export to the EU states had come to a lull after the ban on the seafood products after April 12. He, however, held the federal and provincial governments responsible for the poor handling of the EC ban issue.

An official in the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal) told Dawn from Islamabad that the federal government was in direct consultations with the Sindh government in order to resolve the issue of fish exports.

He said that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had asked the Sindh government to take necessary measures to ensure full compliance of EU standards to restore exports to EU states.

He said the government had two solutions to resume fish exports after April 12. One is that the EC delegation or mission is again invited to visit fish establishments provided that all the 11 establishments meet the requirements in the earliest possible time.

He added that second option is that the government gives an assurance to the EC for removing deficiencies in the processing plants in a specific time-frame instead of any visit by the EC mission.