Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 6 • Number 6 • 3rd April 2006

Brazilian Fisheries Proposal Explores Role of RFMOS in WTO

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

A formal meeting of the WTO Negotiating Group on Rules on 17 March considered a Brazilian text on fisheries subsidies tabled at the end of 2005. The Brazilian text (TN/RL/GEN/79/Rev.1) (see BRIDGES Weekly, 7 December 2005) is a comprehensive proposal for an additional set of rules on fisheries subsidies, including special and differential treatment, and elicited detailed drafting suggestions from across the WTO Membership. In particular, Brazil’s proposal to use the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and regional fisheries management organisations (RFMO) statistics and quotas as a benchmark to establish sustainability garnered questions from both developing and developed countries. The proposal allows developing countries that are part of an RFMO to grant capacity-enhancing subsidies, so long as the fishing capacity remains within the sustainable level of exploitation as defined by the particular RFMO. Norway, Japan, New Zealand and some developing countries suggested that many RFMOs do not have the capacity to determine the sustainability of fisheries for the purposes of the WTO. They also pointed out that many countries are not members of RFMOs and argued that the proposal’s criteria for non-RFMO members were too strict. In reaction to concerns about the role of RFMOs in their proposal, Brazil committed to presenting a new draft of their proposal which “rethinks” the environmental dimension and role of RFMOs by 20 April.

Additional elaboration was also requested on Brazil’s proposal to carve out grants to “patently at risk” fisheries — those considered “overexploited”, “depleted” or “recovering” by the FAO or by a RFMO — from the overall exemption for subsidies to small-scale and artisanal fisheries. While the Brazilian proposal suggests that artisanal and small-scale fishing are different, many developing country delegates considered artisanal and small-scale fisheries to be the same. A developing country delegate said that while artisanal fisheries in developing countries should be exempted from subsidy disciplines, those in developed countries should not.

ICTSD reporting.