Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 7 • Number 2 • 2nd February 2007

Greenpeace Calls for Halt to Fish Trade

Discuss this articleShare your views with other visitors, and read what they have to say

A new report released by Greenpeace International, entitled “Trading Away Our Oceans,” uses data from OECD, EU, and UNEP publications to argue that liberalisation in the fish and fishery products sector will have a devastating effect on the developing world. The paper was released 19 January at the World Social Forum 2007, held in Nairobi, Kenya.

According to Daniel Mittler, a political adviser on trade for Greenpeace, “under trade liberalisation, only a few countries will benefit, and then only in the short term.”

At the WTO, tariffs for fish and fishery products are discussed as part of the broader negotiations on non-agricultural market access (NAMA) and have generated substantial rifts between Members. The Doha Declaration specifies that the current round of negotiations should aim to reduce tariffs, including tariff peaks, high tariffs, and tariff escalation, as well as non-tariff barriers, in particular on products of export interest to developing countries for all non-agricultural products. In addition to the NAMA negotiations at the WTO, those on trade rules have directly touched on fishery issues. Negotiators are seeking to limit the subsidies Members can pay to their fishing fleets, meaning fishing capacity would go down (see Bridges Trade BioRes, 30 June 2006).

Three-quarters of global fish stocks are classified by the UN as fully exploited or overexploited. According to Greenpeace, further liberalisation would increase over-fishing and illegal fishing, and developing nations’ fleets already often have to compete with unlicensed foreign vessels in their waters.

Additional resources

The Greenpeace report “Trading Away Our Oceans: Why Trade Liberalisation of Fisheries Must Be Abandoned” is available at http://oceans.greenpeace.org/en/the-expedition/news/trading-away-oceans.

ICTSD reporting; “Liberalization of fishing undermines food security,” IRIN NEWS, 19 January, 2007; “WTO plans threaten sea life: Greenpeace,” REUTERS, 19 January 2007.