WTO Continues Fish Talks

During the second week of the Doha fisheries subsidies negotiations, World Trade Organization (WTO) members made modest progress on addressing overcapacity and overfishing. US Trade Representative María Pagán emphasized the need for a sustainability-focused approach and the prohibition of harmful subsidies, especially those directed to fishing beyond a WTO Member’s jurisdiction. The US also pushed for greater transparency on forced labor on fishing vessels.

Definitional issues involving large and small artisanal fishers and the need to classify these categories to assess their impact on overcapacity and overfishing marked the proceedings. There was little convergence between major subsidizers such as the European Union, the United States, China, Canada, Korea, and Taiwan, and the large-scale small and artisanal fishers.

Several developing countries pressed for a classification to understand which subsidies should be prohibited and to decide on special and differential treatment for developing and least-developed countries. Some developing countries also called for a robust special and differential treatment regime for their fisheries sector, which has been underdeveloped.

Pakistan proposed that smaller fishing nations should not be held equally responsible for overcapacity and overfishing as major subsidizers. They argued that the current state of depleted fish stocks is due to decades of overcapacity and overfishing by major subsidizers, and these nations must shoulder the responsibility.

WTO members are ready to start working toward text-based negotiations on curbing fisheries subsidies, with the goal of reaching that point by the summer break in August, according to negotiations chair Ambassador Einar Gunnarsson of Iceland. He expressed confidence in members' readiness to engage in text-based discussions and their collective vision to complete the second wave of negotiations by the General Council meeting in December.