Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 13 • Number 13 • 8th April 2009

Rules Group Tackles Fisheries ‘Roadmap’

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An informal meeting of the WTO’s Negotiating Group on Rules focused exclusively on the committee’s negotiations on fisheries subsidies last week. Although the chair praised delegates for their “serious engagement” on the issue, progress toward new legal language to limit subsidies that contribute to overfishing remains uncertain.

“It is too early to predict when [the chair] might feel ready to issue another text,” said a trade official who participated in the meeting.

Given the controversy that arose over some of the fisheries portions of the latest draft text, which was released in late 2007, the chair of the rules group, Ambassador Guillermo Valles Galmés of Uruguay, released a more general ‘roadmap’ for the fisheries discussions in December. The chair indicated that the purpose of the roadmap was to allow delegates to take a step back from the most recent draft text — without abandoning it — and “reflect on the fundamental issues” of its mandate to “strengthen disciplines on subsidies in the fisheries sector” and establish “appropriate and effective” flexibilities for poorer countries.

“My sense is that all participants recognise the global crisis of overcapacity and overfishing, with its consequent negative economic and environmental effects,” the chair wrote in his December draft. But delegates continue to disagree over “the exact scope and meaning of the mandate,” he added.

At last week’s meeting, held on 30 March and 1 April, delegates addressed the first three questions posed in the chair’s roadmap. Those questions covered what subsidies should and should not be prohibited, as well as how Members can ensure that subsidies that are permitted do not contribute to the depletion of fish stocks.

New Zealand, speaking on behalf of a coalition of countries dubbed the Friends of Fish, called for a broad prohibition of subsidies, with only limited exceptions. Speaking for itself, New Zealand gave detailed reasons why all the subsidies listed in Article 1 of the chair’s text should be prohibited. The US, also a member of the Friends of Fish coalition, said that all subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and overfishing should be banned.

But Japan, Korea and Taiwan argued for a narrower embargo on fishing subsidies. Indonesia, India and El Salvador all spoke up to stress the importance of allowing developing countries adequate flexibility in implementing any new disciplines.

“I don’t think we can say that we narrowed any gaps,” said the trade official who attended the meeting, but added that the session had allowed delegates to “drill into” arguments on both sides and explore the technical aspects of the talks.

The next meeting of the rules group will be held the week of 11 May. At that session, delegates will address anti-dumping and subsidies, in addition to the disciplines on fisheries.

ICTSD reporting.