Commodity chains for canned tuna are global, with fishing grounds in all the oceans, processing centers on every continent and end markets equally widespread. A tuna caught by a Taiwanese vessel in the exclusive economic zone of Kiribati in the Pacific may be transported to a cannery in Thailand by a carrier registered in Panama, the logistics of supply from the cannery to buyers in the European Union may be managed by a company based in Singapore, and then the tuna may finally end up in a sandwich in the UK. How does this globalization in canned tuna commodity chains affect the sustainability of tuna fisheries? Clearly the traversing of multiple jurisdictions creates difficulties for national governments in implementing sustainability measures. This paper outlines the various organizations involved in governance along canned tuna supply chains and considers their effectiveness in changing practices around sustainability. Trade and market related measures by governments, industry bodies and environmental organizations seem to offer a useful addition to conventional measures targeting the harvesting node of supply chains, but the effective implementation of measures near the retail end of supply chains requires accurate traceability back to the fishing vessel. This paper is a work-in-progress based on a preliminary study of canned tuna commodity chains, and outlines directions to pursue in future

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Sustainability in Global Canned Tuna Commodity Chains

Over the last decade bilateral relations between Japan and Taiwan have been strained over the issue of tuna fishery management. In 2005, when Taiwan was still under the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration, Japan proposed punitive measures against Taiwan's tuna industries in an international fisheries management body for the Atlantic Ocean. The DPP government took a pragmatic approach, solving the tuna crisis without harming Japan–Taiwan relations, as evidenced by the fact that during the tuna disputes visa-free privilege was granted to Taiwan nationals and the Japanese government openly stated that Taiwan has been a main security objective for Japan and the US. In this paper the Japan-led tuna sanction in 2005 is used as a case study to gauge overall bilateral relations thus far in the twenty-first century.

Henry Chen

Papers

Japan-Taiwan Relations in the Twenty-First Century from the Perspective of Tuna Disputes in the Atlantic Ocean