Fisheries Subsidies, Sustainable Development and the WTO

Indeed, the subject ties together different policy strands, including trade law, social development and environmental protection. In addition, negotiators must figure out how to deal with good subsidies — those that contribute to fisheries conservation and management — and subsidies that fall into grey areas.

There are two main sources of data on fisheries subsidies. The first is the University of British Columbia in Canada.

• Negotiations on Fisheries Subsidies - Norway in Geneva;
• My Short, Happy Life In Jeopardy!.
• WTO | The Rules Negotiations - Fisheries subsidies;
• WTO Puts Off Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies | News | SDG Knowledge Hub | IISD.

But this data does not yet have third party validation. The second source, he said, comes from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development but only covers its members and some observers. Home Public Information All News. Fish is one of the most traded food-commodities in the world. Illicit fishing not only causes economic damage, but also represents a threat to local biodiversity and food security in many coastal states. With an expected population growth of 2 billion over the next 30 years, the importance of the oceans as a source of food, energy and transport will only continue to grow.

Account Options

Oceans can be a reliable source of food, economic growth and employment. Two thirds of the value of Norway's exports comes from ocean-related activities. Norway's management of living marine resources is based on scientific knowledge, and shared stocks are managed in accordance with bilateral and regional agreements. Fish production is also an important source of employment: In Africa alone, the FAO estimates that For some LDCs, fish exports account for a major share of total exports.

The rationale for international disciplines on fisheries subsidies. Most fisheries for which the FAO collects data are already fully exploited; around 31 percent are overfished and only around 10 percent may be able to produce larger harvests. As a result, aquaculture is playing an increasingly important role in filling the demand gap. In this context, subsidies provided to the global fishing industry can tend to undermine efforts to conserve wild fish resources for sustainable use. While LDCs only account for a marginal share of global subsidies, this type of support has often enabled large industrial fishing nations to exploit resources beyond their national economic exclusive zones EEZ in the high seas, but also close to or in the EEZs of several LDCs.

In the absence of effective fisheries management regimes in poor countries, subsidies can contribute to increasing fishing effort and harvests beyond sustainable limits, sometimes at the expense of local artisanal fishing communities in LDCs. Overcapacity combined with weak enforcement of national regulations in LDCs have also resulted in significant rates of illegal, unreported, and unregulated IUU fishing see box 1.

• Fisheries subsidies, sustainable development and the WTO?
• ENVIRONMENT.
• Theory after Derrida: Essays in Critical Praxis.

In SDG target LDCs, like all players in the international trading system, arguably have an interest in reaching a meaningful agreement which demonstrates that the multilateral trade system is a useful forum for international cooperation and rule-making, and that it both contributes, and is seen to contribute, to sustainable development and poverty reduction. The proposals on the table in the WTO negotiations focus, among other things, on subsidies that contribute to illegal, unreported, and unregulated IUU fishing; subsidies provided to fish already overfished stocks; and subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and overfishing.