WTO members move closer to agreement on fisheries subsidies

WTO members on Thursday moved closer to a deal that would set new rules for the global fishing industry and limit government subsidies contributing to unsustainable fishing and depleting global fish stocks.

During a one-day meeting with 104 ministers and heads of delegation, WTO members pledged to conclude negotiations soon and certainly before the WTO Ministerial Conference in early December and to empower their based delegations. in Geneva to do so. Members also confirmed that the negotiating text currently before them can serve as a basis for talks to reach the final agreement.

“I feel new hope tonight. Because ministers and heads of delegation today demonstrated a strong commitment to move forward and do the hard work necessary to bring these negotiations to the finish line. I congratulate you on this. In 20 years of negotiations, this is the closest we have ever taken to achieving a result – a high-quality result that would help build a sustainable blue economy, ”said Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala .

“A fundamental conclusion that I draw from your interventions today is that members are ready to use the text as a basis for future negotiations. A second point to remember today is that there is universal agreement on the importance of food security and the livelihoods of artisanal fishermen in developing and least developed countries.

The prospect of an agreement in the autumn before our Ministerial Conference has improved markedly.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that one third of the world’s fish stocks are overexploited and most of the rest are fully exploited. This represents an increase of 10% in 1970 and 27% in 2000.

Depleted stocks threaten the food security of low-income coastal communities and the livelihoods of poor and vulnerable fishermen who must move further and further from the shore to bring back smaller and smaller catches.

Each year, governments distribute approximately $ 35 billion in fishing subsidies, two-thirds of which goes to commercial fishermen. These subsidies keep ships at sea that would otherwise be economically unsustainable. World leaders made an agreement in 2015 on fisheries subsidies by 2020 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals and trade ministers reaffirmed this commitment in 2017.