WTO Members Urge Enforcement of Fisheries Subsidies Agreement
Panelists at a Sept. 28 Public Forum session held at the World Trade Organization said member nations need to set into motion the implementation of the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, the WTO said. The key agreement, reached at the 12th Ministerial Conference in June, bars certain subsidies to protect global fish stocks while committing WTO members to engage in further negotiations on the tenants of the deal.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
"The essential step now is to have the Agreement enter into force, so we need two-thirds of members to deposit their instruments of acceptance," WTO Deputy Director-General Angela Ellard said. "Our Director-General has set the goal of less than a year from the conclusion of the Agreement so that we can begin to experience the positive effects of the Agreement."
At the event, WTO ambassadors, including Nigeria's Adamu Mohammed Abdulhamid and Thailand's Pimchanok Pitfield, provided updates on their governments' bids to lock down formal acceptance of the agreement while highlighting certain elements of it. Abdulhamid said the deal will stop certain illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, overfishing and capacity. Pitfield touted the fisheries funding mechanism and encouraged developing nations to use the fund while they seek to implement the agreement. Pitfield also highlighted the need for greater analytical work and emphasized the need to keep up transparency and inclusiveness.
"There are basically two strands of parallel work that we have to be doing now," said Benedicte Fleischer, Norway's deputy permanent representative. Fleischer clarified that one strand is the domestic processes for each WTO member to formally accept the deal, while the other is working on the operation and establishment of the Committee on Fisheries Subsidies. She cited the need to engage to deliver a successful second wave of negotiations to enhance disciplines on overfishing and overcapacity.