Renewal of recommendation to suspend trade with Fiji

It was recommended in Notification to the Parties No. 2003/008 of 7 February 2003 that Parties not accept export permits from Fiji until Fiji’s coral export quotas had been verified by the Secretariat and published on the CITES website.

During the 49th meeting of the Standing Committee (Geneva, April 2003), the Secretariat reported on Fiji’s enactment of its legislative bill to implement CITES. The Committee requested the Secretariat to verify the matters detailed in Fiji’s report and to issue a Notification to the Parties, definitively withdrawing the trade suspension, if all outstanding issues had been fully addressed.

After reviewing various matters, the Secretariat determined that Fiji’s Endangered and Protected Species Act No. 29 of 2002 is primary enabling legislation that requires the gazetting of implementing regulations in order for certain provisions to take effect. The Secretariat, together with a representative of Australia (as the representative of Oceania to the Standing Committee) met representatives of Fiji in August 2003. At that time it was agreed that the recommendation to suspend trade with Fiji would be renewed if, by 31 October 2003, Fiji had not promulgated implementing regulations for Act No. 29 and provided details of coral export quotas to the Secretariat. In spite of reminders by the Secretariat, no implementing regulations or details of coral export quotas have been provided to the Secretariat to date.

Therefore the recommendation of the Conference of the Parties that all Parties refuse any import from and export or re-export to Fiji of specimens of CITES-listed species is renewed from 31 October 2003 until further notice.