WTO Members Move Fisheries Subsidies Talks Further at Second 'Fish Week'
World Trade Organization members during April 25-28 "Fish Week" talks showed a willingness to embark on text-based negotiations on fisheries subsidies talks, the WTO said. While the first Fish Week, held in March (see 2303270014), centered on what members wanted to see from the second phase of the talks, the second Fish Week looked at how these objectives would be achieved via bilateral consultations, small group meetings and two plenary meetings, the WTO said.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
The talks zeroed in on making the prohibition on subsidies operational, addressing subsidies to large scale fishing and providing "flexibilities for subsidies for small scale artisanal fishing for developing members and least-developed country members." Einar Gunnarsson, who chaired the negotiations, said there was "widespread support for a hybrid approach outlined in previous negotiating texts, in which prohibited subsidies for overcapacity and overfishing were to be qualified based on both a list of types of government support and a condition relating to the biological sustainability of fish stocks."
Gunnarsson also said members are willing to engage on a new approach based on certain provisions in the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures. Some members said special and differential treatment should be a tool to aid with compliance, while others see it as a tool to provide policy space such as the level of fish catch and economic development.