s Forum(NFF))
The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), in a separate statement, said around 2,600 fishing boats had been destroyed along the Somali coast.
FAO, which was preparing to assist in getting the damaged fishing vessels repaired, said it would support the provision of fishing inputs. It would also provide short-term financial aid and training in improved fishing techniques and boat building to about 2,000 fishermen.
9 Jan: The death toll in India is now more than 10,000 with the number of missing at 5,689, most of them from fishing communities and most presumed dead. (Scotland on Sunday) http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=25442005
9 Jan: Sri Lankans Recall Trauma, Loss as the Instinct to Rebuild Stirs. In this tight-knit neighborhood of fishermen, known as Lovigahawtya, the 48 families suffered 68 deaths. (Los Angeles Times) http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-town9jan09,1,798292.story?coll=la-headlines-world&ctrack=1&cset=true
2 Jan: ...Gamel Silua described how his 72-year-old father, one of the country's [Sri Lanka's] famous stilt fishermen who perch on stakes out at sea and fish with rod and line, was swept away by the tsunami. “One moment he was there. The next he was gone,” he said. “We have never found his body.” (London Times) http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,18690-1422835,00.html
Part of MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY (MPH) UK coalition of 100 leading NGOs, campaigns, trade unions and faith groups
Trade and the Tsunami
Background Trade Justice Movement Briefing for MPH
The Asian tsunami has caused massive damage to many Asian countries, already suffering from high levels of poverty and vulnerability. It is vitally important that the high profile relief efforts are accompanied by measures to address the long-term problems created by the Tsunami, or which now threaten to increase the vulnerability of the poorest groups within affected countries.
Tsunami affected countries, as well as other poor countries, will need a fairer deal on trade if they are to recover from the disaster over the longer term. Certain sectors are of particular importance to Tsunami affected countries. These include the sectors that have been disproportionately impacted by the disaster (for example fisherfolk). They also include those sectors that provide the vital economic growth and employment that will be needed to help affected countries recover.
The Tsunami and Clothing
The European Union and the USA should help disaster-struck countries by immediately improving access to their markets for exports that are vital to the region's economies. Increased exports of textiles and clothing, for example, could generate tens of thousands of jobs, raise incomes, and generate the foreign exchange that affected countries need for essential imports and the enormous challenge of post-tsunami reconstruction. In Sri Lanka, the clothing sector accounts for more than half of the country's total export income and provides 350,000 jobs, mainly for women.
It is now time for the USA and EU to end the punitive duties that affect the tsunami-hit countries. In 2003, the US and EU treasuries collected nearly US$1 billion in taxes solely on Sri Lankan and Indonesian exports of clothing and textiles. These sums may well come close to the amount of aid they disburse. FOOTNOTE
Six days after the tsunami hit, on 1 January, the Multi-Fibre Arrangement came to an end. China and India will gain from the abolition of quotas but the former group of countries will lose out. Sri Lanka, for example, could lose 100,000 jobs as a result of the increased competition. Some analysts believe that Indonesia could lose even more. For these countries, the disaster could not have come at a worse time.
The EU and USA should immediately remove tariff barriers to imports of textiles and clothing from tsunami-affected countries. To avoid unintended discrimination, such zero tariffs should be extended to other poor countries that are highly dependent on textile and clothing exports.
The EU should also immediately simplify its ‘rules of origin' affec