Draft Text Circulated at WTO on 2nd Wave of Fisheries Subsidies Talks
Iceland's Einar Gunnarsson, chair of the fisheries subsidies talks at the World Trade Organization, circulated a draft text on the second fisheries negotiations on Feb. 16, the WTO announced. The text covered subsidies contributing to overcapacity and overfishing and was released in the run-up to the 13th Ministerial Conference, which is set to be held Feb. 26-29.
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The draft proposal had a "two-tiered hybrid approach regarding the main discipline for subsidies contributing to overcapacity and overfishing, with modified criteria to differentiate the members falling into the two tiers." Members in the upper tier would be "required to apply a stricter standard to demonstrate, when they provide fisheries subsidies, that they have measures in place to prevent such subsidization from harming the sustainability of the fish stocks."
There is also special and differential treatment for developing members and least-developed country members. The draft introduces "notable changes in the exemption for small-scale and artisanal fishing or fishing-related activities" that are mainly for low-income, resource poor or "livelihood in nature."