the future. The joint venture's catch was reportedly 

 shrimp, squid, and hake." 



Chile: The China Agricuhure Trust and Investment 

 Corporation has reportedly purchased shares worth $19 

 million from the Chilean fish processing company, San 

 Johe de Corporation. This purchase gave the Chinese 

 company a 26 percent stake in the company and is the 

 largest investment by a Chinese concern in Latin 

 America. The Chilean company owns 17 fishing 

 vessels and two processing plants, whose annual output 

 is 3.6 million cartons of canned fish, in addition to fish 

 meal and fish oil. Nearly 75 percent of production is 

 exported to the United States and Canada. ■"" 



Mexico: China was expected to sign a joint venture 

 fisheries agreement with Mexico in early 1993 

 involving aquaculture (fish and shrimp) and processing 

 operations.-' It is unclear whether this agreement was 

 ever signed. 



F. North America 



United States: China has had a Governing 

 International Fisheries Agreement with the United 

 States since 1985 which allowed China access to U.S. 

 fishery resources. With the Americanization of the 

 U.S. EEZ, however, China received smaller and 

 smaller allocations, and currently receives no allocation 

 in the U.S. 200-mile zone. 



VII. Outlook 



The Chinese Government believes that Chinese 

 fisheries catch could surpass 20 million tons by the 

 year 2000, thanks to increased aquaculture harvests and 

 the introduction of market economics in the fisheries 

 sector. Chinese officials have announced that future 

 Chinese fisheries policy will emphasize the expansion 

 of distant-water fishery operations as one way to reach 

 this 20 million t target.'' 



Since China has already reported a total catch of 15 

 million t in 1992, such an ambitious target is not 

 entirely out of the question. Although distant-water 

 catch may never comprise more than 5 percent of the 

 total Chinese catch by quantity, it may comprise a 

 more significant share of Chinese fisheries by value. 

 Judging from current trends, it appears obvious that 



China's distant-water fleet will take over some of the 

 effort relinquished by Japanese, ROK, and Taiwan 

 fleets, particularly in Pacific Ocean distant-water 

 trawler and tuna fisheries. It is unclear whether China 

 plans to initiate operations in distant-water squid 

 fisheries, but China's plentiful and cheap labor gives it 

 a considerable advantage over its developed Asian 

 competitors. 



A. Trawlers 



Chinese distant-water trawler effort in the mid- 

 1990s will probably focus on three fishing grounds: 1) 

 the peanut hole in the Sea of Okhotsk, 2) the East 

 Atlantic off the coast of West Africa, and 3) the South 

 Atlantic and Pacific off the coasts of Argentina and 

 Chile. Domestic political pressure within the Russian 

 Federation to close the Sea of Okhotsk to foreign 

 fishing has made this fishery's future uncertain, so 

 China may attempt to strengthen its presence in coastal 

 West African, and southwest Atlantic and southeast 

 Pacific fisheries. The catch off coastal Africa will 

 probably supply the domestic market while catch off 

 South America (primarily Argentina and Chile) could 

 soon become the most commercially significant of all 

 Chinese trawler operations, given the relatively high 

 market value of groundfish and related processed 

 seafood products such as surimi. 



B. Squid Jiggers 



China currently has no squid jigging fleet, but will 

 probably become involved in this fishery during the 

 next five years with financial backing from Taiwan 

 partners. If Chinese jiggers begin fishing, they will 

 probably focus on the southwest Atlantic fisheries off 

 Argentina and the Falkland Islands currently favored by 

 the Taiwan jigging fleet. 



C. Driftnet Vessels 



Chinese driftnet vessels, in all likelihood re-flagged 

 Taiwan driftnet vessels, will probably convert to tuna 

 longlining or squid jigging operations. The driftnet 

 vessels which convert to longlining will probably fish 

 in China's new south Pacific distant-water tuna 

 fisheries. Chinese vessels converting to squid jigging 

 will probably participate in the southwest Atlantic squid 

 fishery . 



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