Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 3 • Number 3 • 21st February 2003

‘FRIENDS OF FISH’ PRESS FOR NEGOTIATIONS ON FISHERIES SUBSIDES AT WTO

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‘FRIENDS OF FISH’ PRESS FOR NEGOTIATIONS ON FISHERIES SUBSIDES AT WTO

During the meeting of the WTO Negotiating Group on Rules on 3, 6 and 7 February, the ‘Friends of Fish’ group, consisting of Argentina, Chile, Iceland, New Zealand, Norway and Peru, presented a categorisation of fisheries subsidies in an effort to create a negotiating platform on fisheries subsidies. Japan resisted the calls for negotiations, questioning the causality between fisheries subsidies and over-exploitation.

Based on a proposal tabled on the group’s behalf by New Zealand in late 2002 (see BRIDGES Weekly, 28 November 2002), the ‘Friends of Fish’ group highlighted categories of fisheries subsidies that had been developed in other organisations (TN/RL/W/58). This was done in response to views voiced at the last meeting of the Negotiating Group that the different positions had now been well aired and that it was time to start looking in more detail at the actual subsidies that were the focus of the mandate. They noted that this categorisation should serve as a starting point for the next phase of work, which should be part of the Doha round of negotiations. The paper furthermore stressed the need to not simply address "fisheries subsidies" in an undifferentiated way (i.e. based on an aggregation of all support programmes in the fisheries sector), but to look specifically at different categories of subsidy, their nature and impacts as well as their situation under existing WTO disciplines.

Japan, which maintains a substantial fishery subsidy programme, opposed this idea, and presented a paper suggesting instead that future work should involve discussing environmental issues — such as fish stock depletion — at the Committee on Trade and Environment (TN/RL/W/52). They reiterated their position that fisheries subsidies should not be treated in a special fashion in terms of trade-distorting effects. Instead, these subsidies should be considered in conjunction with other subsidies issues in the Negotiating Group, rather than be singled out. They also stressed that the causality between fisheries subsidies and over-exploitation had not been proven and that policy objectives and positive effects of such subsidies "deserve special attention and impartial analysis".

Australia, the US and Ecuador supported the views of the ‘Friends of Fish’ group, while South Korea sided with Japan. Australia charged Japan with trying to sink the issue by dispersing it among committees. For its part, the US commented that Japan’s position was out of line with the Doha mandate, and said that "constructive engagement" was needed to get real talks under way. The EU reserved its position, stating that it would present a new paper based on its fisheries reform agreed in December 2002. While the EU has traditionally been more aligned with Japan on the issue of fisheries subsidies, it has recently agreed to major reductions in fishing quotas in response to declining stocks (see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 23 January 2003).

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), almost 50 percent of marine fisheries are fully exploited, while 15-18 percent are over-exploited. The ‘Friends of Fish’ group believes fish stocks are declining due to perverse subsidies, while Japan claims the decline is a result of poor fisheries management. Iceland noted during the meeting that while it had made major efforts to manage fish stocks in its own waters, the results had been destroyed because factory fleets from other countries were emptying North Atlantic waters.

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). Reference to negotiations on fisheries subsidies is also included in the Trade and Environment section (para. 31) of the Doha Declaration. The decision to include fisheries subsidies as a separate negotiating item marks a significant change from the previous WTO mandate that had restricted discussions on this issue to the WTO Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE), which prior to Doha did not function as a negotiating forum. Fisheries subsidies are being discussed as a sub-item under the general "subsidies" topic in the Group on Rules, which was established at the Fourth WTO Ministerial Conference in November last year as one of seven negotiating bodies (see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 7 March 2002).

WTO documents are available at http://docsonline.wto.org/.

ICTSD Reporting; "Fishing subsidies raise temperatures at WTO," REUTERS, 10 February 2003.