Representatives of ocean-focused non-governmental organizations have issued a mix of praise and criticism of an agreement struck at the World Trade Organization to prohibit subsidy support for illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing and limiting fishing of overfished stocks.<\/p>\n
The accord,\u00a0agreed to on 14 June, ditched several parts of the draft text presented to ministers and was characterized by WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as a \u201cfirst but significant step forward\u201d to curbing fleet overcapacity by ending subsidies for fishing on the unregulated high seas. Okonjo-Iweala said the reporting requirements included in the deal will \u201cfinally shed light on the<\/p>\n
actual level of subsidies going to fishing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several campaign groups welcomed the deal, including the Pew Charitable Trusts. Isabel Jarrett, manager of The Pew Charitable Trusts\u2019 reducing harmful fisheries subsidies project, said all 164 WTO member governments will have to disclose the extent of their fishery subsidies.<\/p>\n
The Environmental Justice Foundation, which has extensively tracked the consequences of IUU fishing and overfishing in West Africa, also backed the deal.<\/p>\n
However, not all agree the deal was worth the effort. Oceana CEO Andrew Sharpless criticized \u201ca weak agreement that fails to eliminate harmful fisheries subsidies that lead to overfishing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe WTO has failed again to eliminate subsidized overfishing, and in turn, is allowing countries to pillage the world\u2019s oceans,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The failure to secure a better deal meant the WTO is losing its credibility, according to Sharpless.<\/p>\n
Rashid Sumaila, a professor at the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries and the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs at the University of British Columbia, termed the deal \u201ca good start.\u201d He said he is happy to see that fisheries subsidies is on the agenda for the 2023 WTO ministerial meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully, they can begin to fix the weaknesses in the agreement,\u201d Sumaila said. \u201cFor example, they have no restrictions on providing subsidies that to lead to overcapacity and overfishing.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the deal prevents WTO members from granting or maintaining subsidies for \u201cfishing or fishing-related activities regarding an overfished stock,\u201d Sumaila said he would in particular like to see a ban on subsidies that can lead to overcapacity and overfishing. While WTO agreements are binding, he said he would have liked to have had a more-detailed text \u201cnaming specific types of subsidies that are known to be particularly harmful.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":1,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[177],"tags":[771,1617,1997],"region":[26],"source":[1283],"country":[1920],"state":[],"city":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newss\/95589"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newss"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/newss"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newss\/95589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95590,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newss\/95589\/revisions\/95590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95589"},{"taxonomy":"region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/region?post=95589"},{"taxonomy":"source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/source?post=95589"},{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=95589"},{"taxonomy":"state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/state?post=95589"},{"taxonomy":"city","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/city?post=95589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}