WTO and Fisheries
- May 27, 2022
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
WTO and Fisheries
Subject :Economy
Section :External sector
India will endorse a proposal at the World Trade Organization (WTO) on fishery subsidies if the agreement is equitable and does not tie the member-countries to a disadvantageous position in perpetuity, official sources said on Wednesday.
Demands:
- India favours a 25-year exemption from over-fishing subsidy prohibition for developing countries that are not engaged in distant-water fishing.
- It suggests big subsidisers abolish their dole-outs within these 25 years, setting the stage for most developing nations to follow suit.
Background:
WTO negotiations on fisheries subsidies were launched in 2001 at the Doha Ministerial Conference, with a mandate to “clarify and improve” existing WTO disciplines on fisheries subsidies. It was elaborated in 2005 at the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference, including with a call for prohibiting certain forms of fisheries subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and overfishing.
At the 2017 Buenos Aires Ministerial Conference (MC11), ministers decided on a work programme to conclude the negotiations by aiming to adopt, at the next Ministerial Conference, an agreement on fisheries subsidies which delivers on Sustainable Development Goal 14.6
| SDG 14.6 targets to “by 2020, prohibit certain forms of fisheries subsidies which contribute to overcapacity and overfishing, and eliminate subsidies that contribute to IUU fishing, and refrain from introducing new such subsidies, recognizing that appropriate and effective special and differential treatment for developing and least developed countries should be an integral part of the WTO fisheries subsidies negotiation.” |
The chair of the fisheries subsidies negotiations, Ambassador Santiago Wills of Colombia, on 24 November 2021 submitted a draft agreement on fisheries subsidies for the consideration of ministers.