On 20 January, Switzerland became the first WTO member to formally submit its acceptance of the WTO’s new Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, paving the way for the agreement for ocean sustainability to enter into force.
About WTO’s Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies
- It was adopted by consensus at the WTO’s 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) held in Geneva on 12-17 June 2022.
- The Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies sets new binding, multilateral rules to curb harmful subsidies, which are a key factor in the widespread depletion of the world’s fish stocks.
- The Agreement recognizes the needs of developing and least-developed countries (LDCs) and establishes a Fund to provide technical assistance and capacity building to help them implement the Agreement.
- The Agreement prohibits subsidies to illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, and bans subsidies for fishing overfished stocks and for fishing on the unregulated high seas.
- Members also agreed at MC12 to continue negotiations on outstanding issues, with a view to making recommendations by MC13 for additional provisions that would further enhance the disciplines of the Agreement.
- Acceptances from two-thirds of WTO members are needed for the Agreement to come into effect.
India’s stance
- India is not a major fishery subsidy provider unlike countries like China, the European Union (EU) and the US which provide an annual fishery subsidy of USD 7.3 billion, USD 3.8 billion and USD 3.4 billion, respectively. India provided just USD 277 million in 2018 to small fishers.
- The total marine fisherfolk population is 3.77 million comprising 0.90 million families. Nearly 67.3 per cent of the fishermen families were under BPL category. Stoppage of subsidy assistance to fishers in India will ultimately affect millions of fishers and their families and will lead to poverty.
- There are around 2 lakh fishing crafts of which only 37 per cent are mechanised. Traditional fisheries involve fishing households using relatively small amount of capital and relatively small fishing vessels, usually about 20 metres in overall length, making short trips, close to the shores.
- The marine fishery in India is also small-scale and provides food security to millions of people and there is no industrial fishing in India. On the other hand, industrial fishing by developed nations involves large fishing vessels conducting fishing activities in high seas beyond exclusive economic zones, which is detrimental to fish stock.
