UK seafood authority Seafish has won an appeal allowing it to impose a levy on imported fish products.
The Supreme Court today (15 June) ruled that Seafish’s power extends to imposing a levy in respect of imported sea fish or parts of sea fish and that such a levy is not a charge equivalent to a customs duty contrary to EU law.
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The result follows a decision last year when the High Court allowed an appeal by fish importers Bloomsbury International and others who were against paying the levy.
Commenting on the decision, Seafish chief executive Dr Paul Williams said: “We are delighted with the Supreme Court’s ruling. The fact that the highest court in the UK has confirmed our powers to raise a levy on imported sea fish and sea fish products means we can now move forward and carry out our planned activities. The ruling will have a positive impact on Seafish and the entire seafood industry.”
He said that the earlier Court of Appeal decision had resulted in a significant loss of income to Seafish, which “impacted on projects and services in all areas of our organisation”.
“We are now very pleased to be able to return with force to our job – adding value to the seafood industry throughout the supply chain,” said Williams.
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By GlobalDataSeafish has said that it will collect a back-dated levy from businesses that did not pay the levy on imported sea fish and sea fish products form March 2010 until now and that it will be “in touch with the relevant businesses to discuss payment of the levy”.
Young’s Seafood supported the move, with chief executive Leendert den Hollander saying that the industry needs a “collective voice in issues where we have a common interest and a united view”.
“A consumer facing voice, that can represent the industry and help to communicate the benefits of eating fish twice a week, is important for the future of the processing sector. Inspiring consumers, making people more confident in cooking fish and encouraging everyone to try a wide variety of sustainable seafood are important activities…To tackle the big issues – from fish sustainability to food security – there has to be an open dialogue between catchers, processors, importers, distributors, Government, scientists and other stakeholders and we hope that this will continue,” said den Hollander .
