21. World Trade Organization (WTO)

Abstract

Under the mandate fixed under the Ministerial Decision from the WTO’s eleventh ministerial conference, and UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 14.6, negotiators have been given the task of securing agreement to eliminate subsidies to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and to prohibit certain forms of fisheries subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and overfishing. The negotiations on fisheries subsidies disciplines have been ongoing for nearly twenty years. First launched in 2001, WTO discussions on fisheries subsidies were given new impetus in 2015 when the international community adopted the Sustainable Development Goals. It paved the way for the WTO to have agreement by 2020, and it got reaffirmed by trade ministers in 2017. Ambassador Santiago Wills of Columbia, chair of the Negotiating Group on Rules, introduced a new draft text based on members’ collective work and proposed landing zones to curb harmful fisheries subsidies and ensure the sustainability of the world’s oceans on 11 May. At the meeting in July, WTO members edged closer to an agreement that would set new rules for fisheries subsidies and limit government subsidies contributing to unsustainable fishing before the twelfth Ministerial Conference (MC-12) in December. The chair of the Negotiating Group introduced the second revision of the draft negotiating text to be used as the basis for clause-by-clause discussions among members on 8 November. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, MC-12, which had been set to run from 30 November to 3 December in Geneva, was postponed until next year. The Negotiating Group aimed to finalize the text to curb harmful fisheries subsidies by the end of February 2022.