A law that Thailand’s House of Representatives approved in late 2024 aiming to roll back reforms the nation had made to its fisheries industry has stalled in parliament after facing steady backlash.
In 2015, Thailand issued a new Fisheries Act that contained stringent regulations seeking to address alleged illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing and labor violations in the country’s fishing industry.
The reforms responded to the U.S. Department of State downgrading Thailand to Tier 3 in its annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report – its lowest possible rating – in 2014 and the European Commission (E.C.) imposing a yellow card on Thailand in 2015.
Thanks to the measures Thailand put in place, in 2016, the U.S. Department of State upgraded Thailand to a Tier 2 watchlist rating in its TIP report and the E.C. removed its yellow card in January 2019.
Though the reforms helped the Thai fisheries sector improve its international status, the commercial fishing sector in Thailand criticized the adverse impacts they claimed the reforms had on their operations and profitability. Some within the industry rigorously lobbied political parties to roll back the reforms, according to the Bangkok Post.
Those requests soon gained backing from several Thai political parties.
The now-defunct Move Forward Party (MFP), the predecessor of the People's Party (PP), introduced the fishermen-requested amendments in the last term of parliament, which ran from 2019 until March 2023. Their efforts were not successful at the time...
