“We will resume work right after the holidays, with a ‘fish month’ of continuous negotiations taking us to mid-February, when texts for MC13 need to be ready," vowed Ambassador Einar Gunnarsson of Iceland, chair of the fisheries subsidies negotiations.
At the end of the latest Fish Week in early December, members were unable to reach agreement on additional fisheries subsidies disciplines.
Developing nations are wary of a possible loophole that could allow industrialized countries like the European Union, U.S. and China to continue handing out certain subsidies – such as paying cash for access to third countries’ waters – while still adhering, on paper, to an agreed deal.
What could allow these industrialized nations to continue giving subsidies is that government-to-government payments under fisheries access agreements are exempted from the scope of the current WTO negotiations, notes Seafood Source
"Access agreements became a priority for the EU after the depletion of important fish stocks in the North Atlantic and in the Mediterranean," cites a report by The Mercatus Center at George Mason University. "Meanwhile, in the mid- to late 1980s, China began to sign access agreements with coastal states in Africa and Asia to supply the fleet it built, a hybrid of state-owned entities and privately owned firms, as an export-oriented earner of hard currency.
'Indonesia, Iran, Russia, and Turkey similarly operate large fleets, but China retains the world’s largest distant water fleet and has the largest network of access agreements globally," the report states.
The draft text can be accessed here. The chair's explanatory note is available here.
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