Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 2 • Number 4 • 7th March 2002
Members Divided over Fisheries Subsidies
Members Divided over Fisheries Subsidies
In informal meetings of the WTO Negotiating Group on Rules and the Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE), Members set tentative schedules for their upcoming meetings in 2002. Disagreement persisted over whether the Group on Rules should discuss fisheries subsidies as a separate agenda item or include them in wider talks on subsidies. Some argue that treating this issue separately would boost its status and might facilitate the inclusion of environmental and sustainable development-related aspects.
Disagreement over fisheries subsidies
WTO Members at a 28 February informal meeting of the newly-established Negotiating Group on Rules tentatively agreed to hold five meetings in 2002, currently scheduled for 11 March, 13-15 May, 8-10 July, 16-18 October and 25-27 November. However, they failed to reach agreement on how to deal with fisheries subsidies. Iceland — supported by others including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Peru, New Zealand, Malaysia and the US — said that fisheries subsidies should be negotiated under a separate agenda item given that they received specific mention in the Doha Declaration. For their part, Japan and South Korea — who had opposed references to fisheries subsidies during the Doha negotiations — advocated discussions in the context of general subsidies. The Chair of the Rules Group, New Zealand’s Ambassador Timothy John Groser, said he would conduct further consultations with Members on this issue.
According to one environmental source, negotiations under a separate item might raise the status of the issue by making agreement on fisheries a negotiating objective in its own right, thereby forcing Members to produce results. The source also speculated that developing countries might be more likely to accept environmental arguments in a separate discussion on fisheries subsidies rather than during negotiations on subsidies in general. One trade source furthermore stated that fisheries subsidies were the only subsidy issue that had been identified as a win-win-win scenario (i.e. with economic, environmental and developmental benefits) and should therefore be treated separately.
The conservation group World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) welcomed Iceland’s initiative and the show of force from key ‘friends of fish’ during the meeting. WWF hopes that including fisheries subsidies as a distinct agenda item will broaden the scope and modalities of the discussion without separating it from the main negotiations on subsidies. In particular, it would enable a differentiation between subsidies with negative or positive impacts on conservation and sustainable development, and would allow existing norms and regulations (for example developed at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization or the UN Conference on Trade and Development), to be taken into account. Also, general subsidies are likely to be discussed by subsidies experts, while discussions on fisheries subsidies, WWF argues, need to include additional experts in order to address environmental and sustainable development-related aspects.
Background
At the Fourth WTO Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar in November last year, Members agreed to conduct negotiations on clarifying and improving WTO disciplines on fisheries subsidies “in the context of” negotiations on ‘WTO Rules’ (i.e. anti-dumping, subsidies and regional trade agreements). This decision marks a significant change from the previous WTO mandate on this issue that had restricted discussions to the CTE which prior to Doha did not function as a negotiating forum. Reference to negotiations on fisheries subsidies are also included in the Trade and Environment section (para. 31) of the Doha Declaration.
CTE sets agenda for 2002
At a 1 March informal meetings, Members set tentative dates for Special Sessions of the CTE where negotiations on environment will take place (see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 7 February 2002), with meetings scheduled for 21 March, 13-14 June, and 8-9 October back-to-back with the Regular Sessions of the CTE. Observers would not be authorised to attend Special Sessions, as these are negotiating fora. An information session with secretariats from relevant multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) will be held, and will address technical assistance, capacity building, and procedures for information exchange between MEAs and the WTO.
Special Sessions will focus on the mandated negotiations outlined in para. 31, namely the relationship between existing WTO rules and specific trade obligations set out in MEAs; procedures for information exchange between relevant WTO committees and MEA secretariats and criteria for granting of observer status; and the reduction or elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers to environmental goods and services. The latter point remains somewhat unclear, however, as Members also decided at the 1 March meeting that negotiations on environmental goods and services would be best addressed in the Market Access Negotiating Group.
“WTO Members set schedule to implement Doha round rules,” WTO REPORTER, 1 March 2002; ICTSD Internal Files.