Last Monday, December 14, 2020, Ambassador Santiago Wills, leader of the negotiating table on fishing subsidies at the World Trade Organization (WTO), announced that Sustainable Development Goal 14.6 (SDG), which indicated 2020 as the date to achieve the elimination of subsidies that contribute to illegal fishing, as well as certain forms of subsidies that encourage overfishing, was not met on time.
It is true, the situation generated by the pandemic was undoubtedly a factor that stopped the negotiations; but the disagreement between the member countries of the WTO remains the main obstacle. However, Ambassador Wills ended his speech with a message of optimism: “Failure to meet the deadline should not discourage us; on the contrary, we must be excited about the progress achieved, the momentum generated and the unique opportunity we have to conclude this process.”
Since the Doha Round of negotiations in 2001, trade ministers of the countries that are members of the WTO have emphasized the importance of promoting a reform of fisheries subsidies. This intention lost momentum until 2009, when at the seventh ministerial meeting, Ambassador Valles presented a reform proposal. At that time, most developing countries opposed the reform, arguing their right to develop a fishing fleet and their obligation to artisanal fishing communities, so they requested special and differentiated treatment that practically excluded them from the reform.
This opposition stopped the negotiations; however, it opened a series of discussions about the validity of the arguments. Starting with the ninth ministerial meeting in 2013, more and more data began to be generated that questioned the arguments of developing countries against reform. Some of the highlights were the following:
- 51% of the subsidies granted in the world are provided by only 5 member states of the WTO; when entire regions such as Latin America represent only 5.6% of the world's fishing subsidies; therefore, a reform that prohibits subsidies for all countries would improve the trading conditions of developing nations.
- Most of the subsidies worldwide are received by large fleets, leaving artisanal fishermen with only a small fraction. In the case of Mexico, Causa Natura showed that between 2011 and 2016 the artisanal fleet received only 28% of fuel subsidies and that only 20% of the participants accounted for 80% of the subsidies.
- Subsidies have not helped to improve fishing productivity. Global fish catches have not grown since the early nineties, despite subsidies; and in some cases, such as in Mexico, it has been demonstrated that productivity decreases as the number of vessels increases, implying that subsidies that contribute to increased effort have negative impacts on productivity.
Many of these arguments resonated at the United Nations. In September 2015, when the Sustainable Development Goals were announced, a goal was set specifically to ban some types of fishing subsidies and giving the WTO responsibility for this goal.
To achieve this task, the WTO appointed Ambassador Zapata, who established a discussion table for aspects, processes and controversies and three technical panels: one of them to address the issue of subsidies that generate illegal fishing, another for subsidies on overexploited fish stocks and the third to analyze the issue of subsidies that increase fishing effort and overfishing. With the first table close to reaching an agreement, the second with progress and the third with very little progress, the eleventh ministerial meeting was reached in 2017, where the trade ministers of the member countries signed a pact in which they pledged to reach an agreement to regulate fishing subsidies in 2020. Currently, the leader of the discussion table on fishing subsidies is Ambassador Wills, who presented a consolidated text; however, a new year ended and the goal was not met.
While negotiators in Geneva discuss reform, the seas have been the victim of this inability to reach an agreement. When the Doha round began, 25% of fishing stocks had development potential; today only 5% remain in this situation. According to the World Bank, every year 83 billion dollars are lost in inefficiency in fishing - many of them generated by the poor granting of subsidies, starting from this figure, in 20 years the losses would amount to 1,660 billion dollars. Every year, 35.4 billion dollars are awarded worldwide in subsidies and 22.2 billion are subsidies that increase overcapacity and overfishing. In 20 years, more than 400 billion dollars would be used in this type of subsidy instead of being invested in improving fisheries management and the health of the seas. This is something we cannot afford. In the world, 39 million people depend on wild fishing to survive, so hesitation and the slow pace in reaching agreements jeopardize the viability and way of life of millions of families. In 2020, the goal was not reached; let's hope that 2021 will bring us better news.
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