WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies:
The World Trade Organisation’s agreement on Fisheries Subsidies came into force.
- The Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies is the WTO’s first multilateral agreement with environmental sustainability at its core.
- It prohibits government support to illegal fishing activities and overexploitation of stocks, contributing to the protection of marine life.
- It was adopted at the 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) in 2022, in Geneva.
- The first global trade rules designed to curb harmful fisheries subsidies.
- Prohibits subsidies that support illegal, unreported and unregulated(IUU) fishing, fishing activities targeting overfished stocks
- It also covers fishing in areas of the high seas that are not covered by a regional fisheries management organisation.
- WTO Fish Fund: Ministers have established this fund to provide developing economies and least-developed countries (LDCs) with technical assistance and capacity-building needed to implement the new obligations and manage their own fisheries more sustainably.
- Seventeen members have pledged the equivalent of more than USD 18 million to the WTO Fish Fund.
- Following its entry into force this month, a Committee on Fisheries Subsidies will be created to monitor compliance, review members’ notifications on their subsidy programmes.
- WTO members will be required to report details of their fishing subsidies, as well as data such as fish stock levels and conservation measures in place.
