Maldives Chamber of Commerce raises Concern over the EU decision to tax Maldives Fish exports!

From January 2014 the European Union has decided to discontinue its Duty Free Fish imports from Maldives (under the Generalised System of Preference), based on the fact that Maldives has not ratified 27 International Conventions. While this might immediately affect the Fisherman as the Price of Fish vary between 10-3 USD per Kilo, the politics behind the decision is interesting.
The Maldives National Chamber of Commerce, lead by its President Ismail Asif has now made a statement saying that the EU decision was based solely to force Maldives to have Freedom of Religion in Maldives. He says that the EU is not willing to discuss the issue and continue their stance under the "ratify the conventions" argument. Asif also said that this was not democratic that Maldives is expected to be a fully fledged Democracy overnight when the European countries took hundreds of years to be where they are now today. He also said that he was waiting to see which NGO's (almost referring to Transparency Maldives) taking money from these organisations will try to justify these sanctions by the EU.
One main argument raised by Asif was that he questioned how the Government could allow an EU delegation to be present in the Maldives for Election Observation when a more important issue related to the second largest industry of Fisheries, was looming over head. He asked why the MNCCI was not allowed to meet with the delegation. I find it as an attack against the Government saying one side you Stand against EU and on the next you are supporting them.
All in all we need to remember that Asif was the person who cut the Democracy Cake and was arrested numerous times and was the right hand man standing with Mohamed Nasheed during the beginning of MDP and was one of the first Youth Wing leaders of MDP as well as many other actions for the democratic fight that lead to the 2008 Multi Party Election. Then on, he was stabbed by unknown persons and he was seen to depart from the MDP and he rose to the post of President of the MNCCI. I only hope that his intentions with this interview, where he said that the Fishermen might protest against the EU Election Observer teams in Male', is one still based on values of democratic reform. I cannot know if this is a strategy to support the current government or one that has much deeper meaning to it.
Asif has always stood on the right side up till now and i will give him the benefit of doubt. The points raised by Asif on some of the issues seems valid at some level. EU could have been more strict and effective, way before this, and their help would have been much appreciated, if it happened during the fight to remove dictator Gayyoom. They should have pressed Nasheed on the issues as well. So let us see how this plays out. I have a feeling that with the Supreme Court's decision to arrest all the members of the Election Commission should be addressed by the EU and the International Community as well.  Video Interview of MNCCI on EU