The Government has signed up to an international fisheries agreement which could block illegal fishers from using New Zealand ports.
Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully and Fisheries Minister Nathan Guy said this afternoon that New Zealand had become the ninth country to ratify the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations Port State Measures Agreement.
The UN agreement would come into force when it was signed by 25 countries.
It set minimum standards for port access by foreign flagged vessels and their support vessels. Foreign vessels would have to give advance notice and request permission to enter ports, and member countries would conduct inspections to ensure that minimum standards were being met.
Mr McCully said that if it was widely implemented, it would make it more difficult and less economic to fish illegally.
