China, the world's largest seafood exporter, may soon face tougher access to the European Union, the world's largest seafood import market, seafoodsource reported on November 23, 2023.

A parliamentary inquiry into the entry of Chinese products into the European Union says the European Parliament will conduct stricter scrutiny of the origin of Chinese seafood through new fishery control rules. In 2022, China exported $2.2 billion (€2 billion) worth of seafood to the EU, and this figure continues to grow in 2023, with China's purchases from the EU up 5.6 percent year-on-year in volume and 10.3 percent in value.

Eu parliamentarians and fisheries representatives have agreed to tighten access to Chinese exporters if their products are suspected to be linked to illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. In releasing a report highlighting the consequences of Chinese products entering the EU, the European Parliament also recommended working with Beijing to improve transparency and harmonize standards on fisheries governance between the two sides. Grace O 'Sullivan, a member of the European Parliament for Maritime and Fisheries, said: "We urgently need to improve the transparency of European fisheries imports, and we also need to crack down on illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing practices, which we know are endemic among the Chinese fishing fleet."