An MP for the European Union parliament has called for a boycott of all Icelandic products, in response to Iceland’s refusal to reduce its mackerel quota.
Struan Stevenson, the man behind the boycott, first appeared on Grapevine’s pages in a scathing attack against Iceland’s Ministry of Fisheries. At that time, he had accused the ministry of engaging in a “one-sided political trick” with their mackerel quota.
“Iceland likes to present itself as the poor wee victim of the big bad EU,” he told reporters in the UK at the time. “But let’s not forget the facts here. Iceland has unilaterally demanded a quota of 147,000 tonnes next year, even more than their exorbitant catch in 2010 which caused such outrage and sparked the ‘mackerel war’. … This is a shared, migratory stock that Scottish fishermen have worked hard to fish sustainably. Iceland and the Faroe Islands have shown utter contempt for this good management with their smash-and-grab tactics.”
Iceland has not rolled back its mackerel quota, and now Stevenson is calling for an EU ban on all goods from Iceland and the Faroe Islands.
“These countries are hellbent on destroying fish stocks and destroying jobs in the EU,” he told the European parliament in Belgium. “I am therefore calling on all EU citizens and businesses to implement a comprehensive boycott on all goods and products coming from either nation.
“We should immediately sever all such contracts and refuse to trade with either country until they see sense and agree to enter into a realistic and sustainable agreement on the future management of mackerel.”
A vote on the boycott is still pending.
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