New EU rule on tuna good for RP

The Philippines stands to benefit from the European Commission’s (EC) amendment of a current regulation on lead levels in fish, especially tuna, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said yesterday.

Philippine Ambassador to Brussels, Belgium Cristina Ortega reported to the DFA that the Philippines was successful in its efforts to remove a potential technical barrier to trade in the European Union as Manila spearheaded the move to ease the EU requirements related to lead levels in fish.

Ortega said that increasing the maximum level of lead to 0.30 mg/kg was agreed upon during a recent Codex Alimentarius Committee meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. The main argument was that at this level adequate public health protection is already provided.

"The Philippines stands to benefit from this new international standard as the EC is expected to amend current regulation on lead levels in fish. Philippine exporters, though, will need to ensure that the lead levels in their products are well within the maximum limits as EU authorities are expected to be strict with compliance to the new standard," Ortega said.

Manila led the data gathering and organized presentation of arguments that formed the bases for such an international agreement to be readied. Codex is the organization tasked to develop international standards and guidelines for food.

At present, Ortega said the EU regulation requires that fish imported into the 25 member states contains only a maximum level of 0.20 mg/kg of lead.

But developing countries such as the Philippines have difficulty in meeting this requirement since it would require expensive and sophisticated measuring equipment to detect such low lead levels.

Ortega stressed that it was in the developing countries’ interest to fight for an increase in the maximum level of lead.