Representatives of World Trade Organisation (WTO) members adopted a new timetable on 6 December in Geneva to intensify work to seal a fisheries subsidies agreement in 2020.
Technical working meetings will be held during the weeks of 13 January, 3 February, 2 March, 30 March, 20 April and 11 May, according to an official in Geneva. The aim is to establish disciplines on these subsidies to combat overcapacity and overfishing, to remove those that promote illegal, unreported and unregulated fisheries and to refrain from granting new ones.
WTO members hope to reach an agreement for the Twelfth Ministerial Conference (MC12), to be held from 8 to 11 June in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. This ambition is increasingly frustrated by the sluggishness of these talks, the outcome of which had been set for 2019.
Many blockages
During this meeting, progress reports were also provided to members by various facilitators, with the aim of identifying areas of convergence as early as January 2020. The group chairman believes, however, that these documents reflect still very different positions among the members, reported the same source.
There are several reasons for the poor progress of these talks, which have been ongoing for more than 15 years. Some member countries have conditioned them on progress on other issues within the Rules Group. Others are still reluctant to discuss these issues in the WTO.
Special treatment was also required for least developed and developing countries. But the preferential treatment of some developing countries is also being challenged by several industrialised countries, led by the United States. At the same meeting, the Washington representative reportedly pointed out that 17 of the 26 most important fishing countries fell into this category, suggesting that individual transition periods adjusted to each of these countries should be implemented.
European proposal
The EU has submitted a new proposal to members that would allow port states to identify, under certain conditions, cases of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. It is also intended to bring about compromises in these faint hope discussions between pro- and anti-subsidy countries.
However, the negotiations between the European Parliament and the EU Council on the modalities of the 2021-2027 European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF), which have just started (see EUROPE 12373/23, 12367/22), could complicate the Union’s position in the WTO.
The Commission has already criticised certain elements of the European Parliament and EU Council’s positions which provide for aid to increase fishing capacity (aid for the construction of new vessels, aid for engine replacement). (Original version in French by Hermine Donceel with Lionel Changeur)