Members of the World Trade Organization have ended the first half of this year on a somber note of failure, with little or no consensus on any of the targeted negotiations, including disciplines on fisheries subsidies that led to the depletion of global fish stocks.
Members failed to find a way forward on a planned second phase of disciplines on subsidies contributing to overcapacity and over fishing during a two-day meeting of the General Council that ended Tuesday.
Key WTO members expressed disappointment that differences over various proposals on the table could not be bridged.
Negotiating Group on Rules Chair Ambassador Einar Gunnarsson made clear to the meeting that irreconcilable differences remained, despite small group meetings last week aimed at narrowing the gaps between his own draft text and proposals by India, which believes the draft text favors countries with large-scale commercial fishing operations.
The Chair said he remains committed to returning to the discussions.
Major WTO members including the United States, European Union and China expressed frustration at the stalemate.
“Like many others, the United States is disappointed that we were unable to conclude these long-standing negotiations this week,” the US trade envoy said. “An outcome on Additional Provisions to discipline fisheries subsidies contributing to overcapacity and overfishing would have demonstrated that WTO Members can deliver an outcome that would have positively contributed to sustainable development, food security, and the livelihoods of coastal and fishing communities. We are deeply concerned for our future work here in the WTO on these negotiations.”
The United States was prepared to engage in negotiations to conclude the fisheries agreement, despite having some concerns about it.
Washington criticized India for insisting on sticking to its proposals, even though they have failed to gather traction among members. “We won’t debate the various points in India’s papers, but would just note that we find it difficult to understand the objectives of these papers when they re-introduce topics that have been debated and discussed repeatedly, most recently during the fall 2023 fish weeks, the fish month earlier this year, and during MC13 and found no support among the vast majority of Members.”
That view that was echoed by the EU in its intervention.
China also expressed frustration with the failure to make progress. China’s trade envoy, Ambassador LI Chenggang said “we come to this meeting bearing high hope and firm determination to deliver this long-awaited outcome, not only because the latest Chair’s text, in the views of the vast
majority of members, strikes a delicate balance and serves as a solid basis for conclusion, but also because the fish and this planet cannot wait any longer.”
“However, the opportunity has not even been given to members to make a final attempt in this meeting to deliver something for the common good,” the Chinese envoy said.
The current text is not perfect, but there is no text that will satisfy every member, Beijing continued. “Nevertheless, if this set of already-good disciplines could be adopted and implemented, it can certainly bring real changes to the rationale and behavior of members when they subsidize their fishing industries.”
In sharp contrast, Indonesia’s trade envoy Ambassador Dandy Iswara said, “while we are focusing on the environment as one of the sustainability pillars, through SDG 14.6 – we should not forget about other sustainability pillars – namely the economic and social pillars that are also of relevance to this important issue.”
Indonesia said it will defend “the interest of our 2 million small-scale and artisanal fishermen whose livelihood and employment depend on our sea.”
More importantly, the Indonesian trade envoy said the agreement should enable especially “developing members and LDCs to provide support that could accelerate the growth of their small-scale and artisanal fishing without excessive parameters and caveat(s).”
Indonesia said the agreement should ensure that “that the flexibilities to Large Fishing Vessels and distant water fishing is not overly excessive, particularly when historically, both have been heavily subsidized and contributed most to overcapacity and overfishing.”
“Going forward, we believe that to create convergence toward the text, it is imperative for us to consider all three sustainability pillars – economic, environment and social - as they need to be implemented in holistic and balanced manner,” Indonesia said.
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