If you are following this blog, please note that
WordPress does not send out alerts for updates, only for new posts.
To see updates, follow me on Twitter or Bluesky (if you have an account)
or check back here periodically.
By Peter Ungphakorn
POSTED APRIL 21, 2021 | UPDATED AS INDICATED
The drive for a WTO agreement on fisheries subsidies accelerated in 2021 and eventually led to a slightly stripped down deal.
The agreement reached at the Geneva ministerial conference on June 17, 2022 had a vital piece missing, subsidies contributing to overfishing and overcapacity. See also: ‘Fisheries subsidies’ has been agreed by WTO ministers. What’s next? Talks continue in the search for that missing piece. Failure means the agreement self-destructs.
Updates on the latest developments will be added here, with links to new documents and news items, including ratifications (chart and in a nutshell).
Key events
- Latest ratifications chart, ratifications summary, events
- April 12, 2024 — chair Gunnarsson circulates a copy of the “advance draft” from the final day of the Abu Dhabi Ministerial Conference. His accompanying explanation includes an account of the negotiations in Abu Dhabi
- March 2, 2024 (updated) — The Abu Dhabi Ministerial Conference ends. Members are totally deadlocked on fisheries subsidies (and agriculture). The final declaration does not even mention it. Eye witnesses report a confrontation between ministers from India, Fiji and Vanuatu
- February 26–27, 2024 — big celebration of 69 ratifications, with one more a day later, but the target for entry into force is missed and quietly dropped
- February 16–19, 2024 — draft for the Abu Dhabi Ministerial Conference circulated
- January 16–February 12, 2024 — the final busy “fish month” before the Ministerial Conference leaves the chair with a lot of redrafting. He plans to circulate a new version before the conference.
- December 21, 2023 (updated January 2, 2024) — the chair’s new draft and explanation are released publicly
- December 12, 2023 — next round of talks: a “fish month” from mid-January 2024. Will members have enough time to settle all their differences?
- December 4–8, 2023 — at the end of the final “fish week” of 2023, chair Einar Gunnarsson concedes that agreement cannot be reached by year-end. Negotiators are left with lots still to do and no end in sight. No new ratifications since October either
- October 23–24, 2023 — year-end set as target to complete negotiations on the text. Also, seven new ratifications. Does that count as a surge?
- October 9–13, 2023 — sixth “fish week”, members set out their differences but do not negotiate. Details of India’s controversial paper emerge
- September 18–22, 2023 — fifth “fish week”, call for ratifications when senior officials meet, October 23–24
- September 9–10, 2023 — G20 leaders’ strange commitment
- September 4, 2023 — first draft on disciplines for subsidies contributing to overcapacity and overfishing, the “missing piece”
- July 10–14, 2023 — fourth of a series of “fish weeks”
- May 25, 2023 — EU to ratify. But will that bring total ratifications to 34 or 35? A long-standing WTO conundrum
- February 28, 2023 — WTO head shifts target for ratifications back to 2024
- January 27, 2023 — new chair picked after months of deadlock
- January 24, 2023 — first ratification (Switzerland)
- October 10, 2022 — Evian retreat
- September 26, 2022 — chair Santiago Wills departs
- June 17, 2022 — slimmed-down agreement reached at ministerial conference
- June 10, 2022 — new draft
- November 24, 2021 — new draft
- November 8, 2021 — new draft
- June 30, 2021 — new draft circulated publicly
- May 27, 2021 — US proposal on forced labour
- December 2020 — draft leaked
IN A NUTSHELL
Ratifications of the June 2022 Fisheries Subsidies Agreement
May 13, 2024
Total ratifications = 75
(= 46% of all members, = 68% of the first target)
First target (two thirds of 164 members) = 110
Additional ratifications needed to reach two thirds = 35
Members that have not ratified = 88
Eventual target (agreement applies to all members) = 164 members (or 163 ratifications*)
● The agreement takes effect after two thirds of the membership have ratified (“accepted”) it. Even then it only applies to the countries that have ratified
● The WTO’s up-to-date list of ratifications is here
* So long as the EU’s ratifications count as 27 (the number of EU member states) instead of 28 (member states + EU itself, also a WTO member), total ratifications cannot exceed 163
May 6 and 13, 2024 — After a hiatus of almost two months, Cambodia hands in the 73rd ratification of the (incomplete) 2022 agreement on May 6, followed by Laos (a landlocked least-developed country) and Mauritius a week later. See: WTO members are slow to ratify the Fisheries Subsidies Agreement; WTO website: Cambodia, Laos and Mauritius.
April 12, 2024 — chair Einar Gunnarsson circulates a copy of an “advance draft” as emailed to ministers in the early hours of March 1, 2024, close to the end of the Abu Dhabi Ministerial Conference. His accompanying explanation includes a detailed account of what happened at the conference.
Paragraphs 56 to 59 of the chair’s explanation describe further convergence after that draft was circulated, although some issues remained unsettled.
It was the further revisions that Fiji and Vanuatu wanted to share — if not discuss — in the final plenary sessions at the conference, sparking a furious outburst of objections from India’s Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal.
As Gunnarsson says, work will continue.
March 2, 2024 — With no agreement on the missing piece in the 2022 Fisheries Subsidies Agreement, the WTO’s Abu Dhabi Ministerial Conference ends in the early hours, over a day later than originally planned. Reported deadlock over several issues, including the phase-in period for developing countries and other provisions, meant the final ministerial declaration did not mention fish at all. No decision was taken even on a new target date for agreeing how to curb subsidies causing overcapacity and overfishing. Details of any convergence during the conference have not yet emerged.
Fiji and other Pacific island nations are reported to be unhappy with the failure. Eye witnesses report confrontation between India’s Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and the deputy prime ministers of Fiji and Vanuatu in the early hours of March 2. Afterwards, the Indian minister says he is satisfied to have defended the interests of Indian fishers and farmers.
Problems in some other subjects also caused the extension. For the second time running, there is no outcome on agriculture either.
See What next? Seven talking points after the WTO’s 2024 Ministerial Conference and the WTO website’s news story on the meeting’s conclusion.
February 26–27, 2024 — at the February 26–29 Ministerial Conference in Abu Dhabi, eight more countries ratify the 2022 agreement as WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala hosts a big celebration of the 69 countries that have ratified it. The following day a ninth hands its ratification in.
The nine are: Brunei, Chad, Malaysia, Norway, Philippines, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Togo and Türkiye. (Malaysia, Norway and the Philippines — the ninth — are among the top 20 fishing nations, by FAO figures.)
By now Okonjo-Iweala has quietly dropped her already revised aim of achieving 110 ratifications — to activate the 2022 agreement — at or before the conference.
February 16–19, 2024 — the draft for the Ministerial Conference in Abu Dhabi is circulated along with a 16-page explanation from the chair, Ambassador Einar Gunnarsson of Iceland. Among the remaining differences that Gunnarsson highlights are provisions on small-scale low-income or artisanal fishing, how long the phase-out of special treatment for developing countries should last, and provisions excluding from special treatment developing countries that have industrial fishing.
Gunnarsson says he will continue to work with members up to and during the conference. Ministers could receive additional documents. Details here. The WTO website’s report is here.
February 14, 2024 — Barbados, Dominica, Senegal and Uruguay ratify the 2022 agreement bringing total ratifications to 60, requiring 50 more to activate the agreement. Whether that can be achieved by the February 26–29, 2024 Ministerial Conference remains to be seen.
Target quietly dropped: Achieving 110 ratifications by the end of the Ministerial Conference was no longer the aim and members fell short by 39 ratifications. Details here. Click the image to see it full size | CC BY-SA 4.0
January 16–February 12, 2024 — multiple negotiations sessions in the final “fish month” before the Ministerial Conference provide a lot of material for the chair’s next and final draft before the conference.
The four weeks start well enough for chair Einar Gunnarsson (Iceland’s ambassador) to say he is more optimistic. But he won’t have his revised draft until after the February 14 General Council meeting.
A lot is still left to resolve including contentious provisions on special treatment for developing countries. The African Group is said to have joined India in seeking a 25-year exemption to allow fishing within special economic zones to be subsidised.
On the plus side, word has it that criteria might be close to being agreed, for countries to show whether some subsidies help sustain fish stocks. Those subsidies would be exempt from disciplines.
None of this can be confirmed until the new draft is released. Meanwhile, the pace of ratifications needed is now one every 7 hours (54 in 16 days) to meet the target of activating the 2022 agreement at the conference. (Also: WTO website January 15 news story)
December 21, 2023 — Chair Gunnarsson circulates his latest draft with an accompanying explanation. A summary, details and full texts are here (January 2, 2024). This time the text is public, reverting to the practice in the lead up to the (incomplete) 2022 agreement. Much remains unresolved as their last-chance “fish month” awaits delegates after the New Year break. Meanwhile as the year draws to an end, barely one third of members (55 out of 164) have ratified the 2022 agreement.
See also these Mercatus Center policy briefs on the WTO agreement,
released on December 18, 2023, and more research here
December 12, 2023 — Gunnarsson announces in the Trade Negotiations Committee that the next round of talks will be an intensive “fish month”, January 15 to February 9, 2024. After that WTO activity will be gearing up for the February 26–29 Ministerial Conference. Details of the schedule and an in-depth look at the issues to be resolved are here, including excerpts from Gunnarsson’s report to the Trade Negotiations Committee.
December 4–8, 2023 — Reaching agreement by the end of the year will not be possible, Gunnarsson concedes at the end of the eighth “fish week” of negotiations. But he and WTO chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala say delegations have been constructive, keeping their hopes alive that agreement can be reached by the February 26–29 Ministerial Conference.
See “No WTO fisheries subsidies text this year, negotiations chair concedes”.
On the table this week are six new documents. One is a new draft presented by the chair, focusing on his proposed Article A.1 (listing prohibited subsidies and possible flexibilities) and Article B (special treatment for developing countries).
The differences are many and wide-ranging. Sources say one of the most controversial issues remains the proposal for the largest subsidisers to face extra scrutiny.
A WTO Secretariat paper uses FAO data to rank countries by share of the global catch, to set “de minimis” thresholds allowing small players among developing countries to escape disciplines.
Meanwhile, there have been no new ratifications of the 2022 agreement in 45 days since the October 23–24 “surge”. The total remains at 52, still 58 short of the 110 needed (two thirds of the membership) to activate the agreement in ratifying countries — 58 ratifications in only 83 days to the target (the Abu Dhabi Ministerial Conference) or one every 33 hours.
(See the WTO website news story at the start and the end of the week. The chair has stopped briefing journalists on proceedings.)
November 6–10, 2023 — The seventh “fish week” of negotiations. Little information emerges from the WTO website news story on how the talks went, or whether any signs of gaps being narrowed. There have been no new ratifications in three weeks since the October 23–24 mini-surge, when the pace should now be one every two or three days, if the 2022 agreement is to be activated with 110 ratifications by the February 2024 Ministerial Conference.
October 23–24, 2023 — 1. Negotiations. Senior capital-based officials meeting at the WTO are said to have given “a ‘resounding yes’ to reaffirm the MC12 [the June 2022 Ministerial Conference] commitment to complete by MC13 [the next one in February 2024] and to conclude text-based discussions by December.”
But whether this signifies an improved chance of a deal is unclear. It could simply be practical, by counting backwards. If ministers are to agree at the next conference in Abu Dhabi, then a final text would be needed at around the end of the year. Insiders said there was no movement on substance — on the divergent positions on the current draft.
2. Ratifications. The WTO reports a “surge” in ratifications of the 2022 agreement as seven are delivered at a ceremony held during the two-day senior officials’ meeting, bringing the total to 51. (The next day Fiji takes the total to 52.)
A closer look at the trajectory suggests several had been holding back since September in order to deliver them during the ceremony. The 51st was only slightly ahead of the trend in June and July.
Some number crunching for October 23:
- 16 months after the original decision, 51 ratifications = 3.2 per month
- To reach 110 and activate the agreement in ratifying countries by the February 2024 Ministerial Conference (“MC13”) = 59 more in 4 months = 14.8 per month (1 every 2 days or so)
- Compare that with the last 4 months = 15 = 3.75 per month
- To achieve the target, the pace must quadruple
October 9–13, 2023 — Chair Einar Gunnarsson holds his sixth “fish week”. Negotiators go through his entire draft line by line, which he calls “tremendous”. But there are no real negotiations and the gaps are as wide as ever.
Differences include on: extra scrutiny for big subsidisers, reopening the 2022 agreement, special treatment for developing countries (with exclusions for China and others): “WTO fish talks complete draft read-through with little real negotiation”.
“In short, it is now the right time to enter into full negotiating mode,” Gunnarsson says.
By now details have emerged of India’s paper, circulated in the previous fish week in September, confirming wide gaps between members’ positions: “WTO fish talks face tough week as India seeks to reopen 2022 deal”. WTO website’s news: start of the week: end of the week.
September 18–22, 2023 — WTO members have accepted his draft as a starting point for negotiating a text, chair Einar Gunnarsson says at the end of his fifth “fish week”. At the start of the week he had introduced the draft to WTO ambassadors. Deputy Director-General Angela Ellard is optimistic that ratifications of the 2022 agreement will arrive when senior officials meet in Geneva, October 23–24 and the target of 110 will be reached at the February 2024 Ministerial Conference. WTO website news: start of the week; end of the week.
September 9–10, 2023 — G20 leaders include this strange commitment in their 37-page New Delhi summit declaration (page 18) under “Harnessing and Preserving the Ocean-based Economy”:
“We … reiterate our commitment to ending illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, as well as destructive fishing methods in accordance with international law.”
But they do not mention the fisheries subsidies work in the WTO anywhere, not even in the section on trade and the WTO (pages 4–5) or under the sustainable development goals (pages 7–11).
The 2022 Fisheries Subsidies Agreement had already been reached multilaterally by consensus 15 months previously. It includes banning support for illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. Ratifying it is a unilateral domestic affair, so G20 members should all have ratified if they were serious in their reiterated commitment.
But at the time of the declaration, two thirds of them were still missing.
G20 members that had ratified it (8) were: Canada, China, Japan, the US, and the EU and its member states France, Germany and Italy.
The rest (12) had not: host-country India, and Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, Rep. Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Türkiye, and the UK.
This did not simply mean the agreement did not apply to those 12 countries. They also kept total ratifications well below the two thirds of WTO members needed to activate the agreement anywhere. They helped prevent the ban on subsidies for illegal etc fishing from applying even in the countries that had ratified the agreement.
For an antidote to G20 PR, see Martin Wolf’s
“We need the G20 — but what is it for?” (FT, paywalled)
September 4, 2023 — Chair Einar Gunnarsson circulates a draft on the “missing piece” — subsidies contributing to overcapacity and overfishing — with an accompanying explanation. The purpose is have a text that members can start to negotiate. The draft draws on deadlocked versions from late 2021 and 2022, and on what members said in rounds of meetings in 2023.
Working on a text is necessary if members are to meet their aim of reaching agreement by the next Ministerial Conference (“MC13”) in Abu Dhabi, February 2024. Details: “New draft starts text-based rush for WTO fish subsidies’ ‘missing piece’”
August 3, 2023 — Analysis: Is it time for WTO members to rethink how ratifications work? Fisheries Subsidies is not the only one with ratification issues. No new agreement or amendment has ever been ratified by the whole WTO membership
July 11–14, 2023 — Members show a “real sense of urgency”, “are increasingly understanding the thinking of those with a different point of view” and are gearing up to negotiate a text in the autumn, chair Einar Gunnarsson said on July 14.
The aim is to complete the text by the end of the year and submit it to the next WTO Ministerial Conference in Abu Dhabi, February 2024. More here.
He was reporting on the fourth in a series of “fish weeks” as members try to complete negotiations on the “missing piece”. Began and ended with informal meetings of ambassadors (“heads of delegations”), small-group consultations in between.
Another meeting on July 19 was scheduled to discuss the Fisheries Subsidies Committee which will be created once the 2022 agreement takes effect.
Earlier, information in a WTO website curtain-rasing news story was sparse, but it suggested members were retracing their steps in order to try to move forward.
“For this week, I would request that delegations aim to [bring] specific views and concrete ideas on what elements from the various proposals and the W/20 and W/5 texts they think would form the best basis for our text-based discussions in the fall,” said chair Einar Gunnarsson (Iceland’s ambassador).
“W/5” is the draft agreement from November 2021, just before the Ministerial Conference, which was postponed, and W/20 is the one from immediately before the actual conference in June 2022.
They contain full but slightly different versions of Article 5 on subsidies contributing to over-capacity and over-fishing, which was stripped to almost nothing in the version agreed at the conference.
Gunnarsson also gave members a table summarizing approaches in various texts and proposals, to help members find common ground, the WTO news story says.
The aim is to reach agreement by the February 2024 Ministerial Conference in Abu Dhabi, or at least to provide ministers with “recommendations”.
Previous “fish weeks” were in March, April and June, 2023. Four more are planned, one per month from September to December.
Members want to complete the second wave of fisheries subsidies negotiations by the General Council meeting in December so that they can focus on cleaning up the text of a new agreement by the February 2024 Ministerial Conference, the WTO website says.
Photos, clockwise from top left: Spanish Trawler Nuevo Virgen De La Barca (Oakbase2004 Photograph taken by crew member, CC BY-SA 3.0); Fishing vessel in New Zealand (Bernard-Spragg. NZ, Flickr, public domain CC0 1.0); Modern Trawler, Denmark (skagman Wikimedia, CC BY 2.0; Japanese squid jigger (Phillip Capper, Wikimedia CC BY 2.0); Tuna Purser, Seychelles (Clipper, Wikimedia CC BY-SA 3.0)
June 7–27, 2023 — As the agreement decision’s anniversary approached on June 17, the number of ratifications was still only seven on June 7, rising to 34 when the EU delivered its 27 ratifications the following day, to 35 (Nigeria) on June 12, and 36 (Belize) on June 16.
“We are aiming to secure this agreement’s entry into force by the 13th Ministerial Conference next February in Abu Dhabi,” WTO deputy head Angela Ellard told members on June 21, opening an event to mark the anniversary and encourage them to ratify more quickly.
After the anniversary China, with the world’s largest marine fishing catch, ratified on June 27.
We can compare the slow pace of ratifications for Fisheries Subsidies with those for the Trade Facilitation Agreement.
May 25, 2023 — the EU announces it has completed ratification. This is going to reveal a quirk in the agreement and a conundrum for how two thirds of the membership is calculated.
The EU is 28 WTO members: its 27 member states plus the EU itself. There are 136 other WTO members, bringing the total to 164. Two thirds of 164 is (rounded up) 110 members.
But presumably at the behest of the EU, the agreement says that for ratification the EU will be counted as the number of its member states. That’s 27 — not 28 — and it means 83 other WTO members — not 82 — have to ratify the agreement in order to reach two thirds or 110.
Even if everyone ratifies, the total will be 163, meaning mathematically one member has not ratified. Or, it means there are 163 members, not 164, in which case two thirds is 109, not 110.
There is nothing in WTO rules to say that the EU should be counted as 27 for ratification instead of 28. The only rule where that applies is for voting — WTO Agreement Article 9 paragraph 1: “Where the European Communities [now EU] exercise their right to vote, they shall have a number of votes equal to the number of their member States.” (See also “Can EU law really dictate World Trade Organization rules?”)
April 11, 2023 — The US becomes the fourth country to ratify (“accept”) the Fisheries Subsidies Agreement after Seychelles, Singapore and Switzerland. That makes four members in 10 months. Another 106 are needed to reach the 110 ratifications required to activate the agreement in ratifying countries. (Canada and Iceland ratified in May 2023, to make six ratifications.)
At this rate it would take 20 years for the agreement to enter into force anywhere. In reality the rate of ratifications can be expected to accelerate, hopefully with a large number within 2023. But it is hard to overcome the feeling that members do not see this as an urgent political priority, even though the 2020 deadline in UN Sustainable Development Goal 14 Target 6 has long passed.
February 28, 2023 — WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iwealla tells members she has softened her ambition for the Fisheries Subsidies Agreement to take effect.
She had previously aimed for one year from the decision at the June 2022 Ministerial Conference, but the needed ratification from two-thirds of the members (110 from 164) is now unlikely to happen by then. Her target now is by the next Ministerial Conference in the week of February 26, 2024, she told a heads of delegations meeting.
The agreement enters into force in the ratifying countries after their number has passed two-thirds of the membership. It does not enter into force in countries that have not ratified it. See explanation.
So far only Switzerland and Singapore have ratified, but others are expected to follow soon, but not as fast as originally hoped.
Okonjo-Iweala warned developing countries that those who do not ratify the agreement will not be able to draw on the new WTO Fisheries Fund since the agreement won’t apply to them. The fund has been up-and-running since Japan made the first donation on February 8.
January 27, 2023 — WTO members finally agree on a new chair for the fisheries subsidies negotiations: Iceland’s ambassador Einar Gunnarsson. (Ambassador Alparslan Acarsoy of Türkiye was also picked to chair the agriculture negotiations).
The deadlock (see November 1, 2022) centred on the rival candidacy of Sri Lanka’s ambassador, Gothami Silva, who is said to have “touted” her own credentials, complained about the process and had the support of India and Venezuela. By January 27, 2023 she is said to have returned to her capital.
January 20 and 24, and February 10, 2023 — the first ratification is announced — six months after agreement was reached — by Switzerland, hosting the annual meeting of trade ministers on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
The official document is circulated four days later on January 24, 2023.
Switzerland is landlocked and does not have sea fishing or aquaculture (although it does have registered merchant ships).
Next came Singapore, on February 10, 2023 (circulated five days later). Further updates are on the WTO website’s list of ratifications.
To repeat: the agreement does not apply until two thirds of the WTO membership have ratified it, and even then it only applies in the countries that have ratified. Worth watching: how quickly and how many of the major fishing members will ratify it. The current top 10 fishing countries are: China, Indonesia, Peru, Russia, US, India, Vietnam, Japan, Norway, Chile. The EU as a whole would rank too. (See table 2 of the FAO’s “The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2022”)
November 30, 2022 — formal General Council meeting: chairs’ selection still unresolved and still no ratifications yet. The EU says it will ratify in 2023. Twitter thread, Mastodon thread. See also WTO website (focusing mainly on Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s statements, not on what members said).
November 1, 2022 — a row breaks out among WTO members in an informal meeting of the General Council, on choosing a new chair. Should it be a package with the new agriculture negotiations chair? Are the three people consulting members on the selection biased? Have the Sri Lankan ambassador’s credentials been ignored? Twitter thread and report in Inside US Trade.
October 10, 2022 — The “retreat” in Evian, France, summarised in a WTO website news story. Understandably, it is vague on what participants actually said. It was held under the Chatham House Rule of non-attribution to anything said in the meeting except where specifically agreed.
Some private accounts suggest a number of participants (but not all) were willing to contribute in the spirit of “brainstorming” and to overlook their official positions. The size of the event and the broad questions asked meant that the discussion tended to be general rather than give-and-take on negotiating points.
A number of participants said too little is known about subsidies for fishing and called for a series of information sessions before getting back to negotiations. Some are said to have called for transparency provisions to be implemented even before the agreement is ratified and takes effect.
How useful the retreat was may depend on what happens next in the negotiations.
About 200 officials from almost 100 countries attended, the WTO said. The retreat included breakout groups. Former chair Santiago Wills summed up with these points:
- Members expressed a common desire to conclude negotiations on a comprehensive and effective agreement by the next Ministerial Conference with a strong focus on overcapacity and overfishing, including special and differential treatment
- Members emphasized that the second wave of negotiations should continue to uphold the principles of openness, inclusiveness and transparency
- Members suggested a concrete first step of building knowledge that would inform the second wave of negotiations
- Members underlined the urgent need to appoint a new chair to lead the next stage of the fisheries subsidies negotiations
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) made an on-the-record statement linking the WTO agreement with information about the current situation, and describing related activities on fisheries in the FAO and where the two organisations can work together:
“As measured by the Maximum Sustainable Yield, or MSY, the trend is discouraging, as the number of sustainable stocks in the world fell by 1.2 percent in 2019, to 64.6 percent, continuing the decline that has been observed for decades. And I am aware that some other estimates put the number of sustainable stocks lower, so this trend needs to be a continuing cause for concern and focused policy attention. One encouraging finding of SOFIA [the State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture report] in this regard is that catches from sustainable stocks are increasing, accounting for 82.5 percent of total catches, up a remarkable 3.8 percent since the previous report. These are typically the better-managed stocks, demonstrating that fisheries management effectively adds value to society, operators, and to the hundreds of millions of livelihoods that depend on fishing.”
September 26, 2022 — Tributes paid to outgoing chair Santiago Wills, whose final report on latest developments included this:
“Now, I would like to address one question that has been raised with me more than a few times — what exactly happened during the Ministerial Conference?
“In particular, I know that many of you are still wondering how and why some of the changes were made in the Agreement compared to the earlier version sent to Ministers in document WT/MIN(22)/W/20 (the W/20 text) [with accompanying explanation]. And while I myself am still trying to recall everything that happened over the course of the five nights and four and a half days of the Conference, allow me to use this opportunity to share some of my recollections.
“As you all know, over the course of MC12 [the 12th Ministerial Conference in June] Ministers engaged very intensively on fisheries subsidies, on different issues and in different configurations, aiming to bridge the remaining gaps. Through several meetings on different configurations with most delegations and a couple of overnight sessions with several Ministers, the W/20 text went through a distillation process where provisions that all could accept were starting to be identified. That version of the text was presented in the early hours of 16 June 2022 and then again later in the morning of that same day. Towards the end of the day of 16 June 2022, and after many discussions throughout the day, a group of Heads of Delegation representing the main active Members and groups further distilled the document that became the final text of the Agreement. Again, all this by identifying the provisions in the W/20 text that all could accept, by temporarily setting aside provisions where consensus had not emerged, and introducing a new final Article containing a termination clause. That clause was introduced at the insistence of Members wanting to ensure that the remaining issues would continue to be the subject of further negotiations, and not simply abandoned.”
The search for a new chair begins. A “retreat” on fisheries subsidies is announced. (WTO website news story)
June 17, July 13, 2022 — WTO members agree on the final fisheries subsidies text (see also identical draft sent to ministers). Article 5, originally on “subsidies contributing to overcapacity and overfishing”, is stripped down to brief provisions on “other subsidies”. It is now the missing piece of the agreement, which will terminate after four years of entering into force if “comprehensive disciplines are not adopted”, or the General Council agrees to extend it.
Two cover pages accompany the agreement.
One is a formal decision on the agreement. It also sets a target for “recommendations” on completing the missing part by the next Ministerial Conference (currently scheduled for late 2023). This would be well ahead of the self-destruct deadline of Article 12.
The other is a protocol, ie, a legal instrument for adding the agreement to the WTO rule book as an amendment annexed to the WTO Agreement. A document certifying that the protocol is a “certified true copy” was circulated on July 13.
The agreement now goes to members to ratify (“accept”) it. It enters into force in the ratifying countries after their number has passed two-thirds of the membership. It does not enter into force in countries that have not ratified it. See explanation.
June 10, 2022 — Chair Santiago Wills submitted his latest draft to the June 12–15 Ministerial Conference, “without prejudice to any Member’s positions or views, whether or not reflected herein”. Attached was a 23-page explanatory note. He told delegations:
“I am very pleased to say that, this evening, I finished working on a revised draft of the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies which has been sent to ministers for their consideration at [the Ministerial Conference]. In some places the draft text is my best attempt to suggest an outcome that I think is most likely to attract consensus. In some areas I am delighted to say it is not my work at all. Instead, the text presented came from groups of members with very different starting positions and who, working together, resolved their differences and presented to the plenary a text they could all accept.
“Overall, the draft Agreement sent to ministers this evening represents my best and honest effort at presenting to them a draft that is as clean as possible with only a few decisions for them to focus on, negotiate, and agree. After over 20 years, it is long past time for the WTO to deliver on its promise to agree to rules that will stop subsidies for illegal and excessive fishing.”
May 20, 2022 — At the end of five days of negotiations, the chair, Santiago Wills briefed the media on progress made and the on remaining differences, and called for agreement on the text in the week of May 30, 2022. His statement to the media is here. See also this Twitter thread, and the WTO website news story.
April 7, 2022 — “In Focus: A Draft WTO Agreement to Curb Harmful Fisheries Subsidies”, a 10-minute video explanation of the draft by Alice Tipping and IISD
February 15, 2022 — “From these various consultations, I got the general sense that members are interested in using the current period to continue trying to make progress toward concluding the negotiations as soon as possible,” the chair of the negotiations, Ambassador Santiago Wills of Colombia told an informal meeting. (Chair of fisheries subsidies negotiations reports on consultations with members, WTO news story)
December 10, 2021 — Chair of fisheries subsidies negotiations outlines next steps for work in the new year (WTO news story) Fisheries subsidies negotiations aim to conclude as quickly as possible in the new year, the chair of the negotiations, Ambassador Santiago Wills of Colombia reported.
November 26, 2021 — WTO General Council decides to postpone Ministerial Conference indefinitely (WTO news story)
November 24, 2021 — revised 9-page draft (WT/MIN(21)/W/5) and 18-page explanation (WT/MIN(21)/W/5/Add.1) issued as official ministerial documents. See also this WTO news story, including statements by the chair. One issue seems to be settled: it’s proposed as an “agreement”
November 18, 2021 — If ‘fisheries subsidies’ is agreed by WTO ministers, what then? The implications of the next procedural steps are little known. This could still take some time
November 8, 2021 — ‘A lot rests on Members’ shoulders’ — sixth WTO fisheries text circulated, including chair’s statement for media. Links to the chair’s revised 8-page draft (TN/RL/W/276/Rev.2) and 20-page explanation (TN/RL/W/276/Rev.2/Add.1). See also this WTO news story.
October 29, 2021 — The WTO website reports a possible breakthrough, but gives no details. Talks chair Santiago Wills says:
“I continue to have a strong sense of optimism that we will conclude these negotiations, notwithstanding the differences that we still need to bridge. The next few weeks will not be easy as this is the time to bridge those differences. I will be continuing to reach out to different members in different configurations, to listen carefully and to prepare the ground as much as possible for MC12 [the November 30–December 3 Ministerial Conference].”
October 4–5, 2021 — As negotiators worked through the chair’s draft, there were signs that transparency might be a compromise alternative to banning fuel subsidies that are not directly for fishing (India’s new proposal; EU willing to consider). But members remain divided on (1) transparency from developing countries although the African Group suggested technical assistance to achieve this might help, and (2) the US proposal for countries to supply information on use of forced labour.
Members remained blocked on illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing — how to determine fishing is IUU, and whether prohibitions should apply only to IUU boats or to whole fleets containing IUU boats.
Daily meetings are scheduled for October 11–29, going through the draft line by line.
See also WTO negotiations on fisheries subsidies hit “dark” patch, SeafoodSource, October 8, 2021
September 24, 2021 — Negotiators discussed new papers from India and the African-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP) countries (with the African Group), with little sign of movement towards compromise. Several delegations said India’s proposal was not oriented towards a solution and “had no element that could help bring about a compromise between members” (see Amiti Sen in Hindu Business Line, September 26, 2021).
August 30, 2021 — WTO members gear up for marathon fishing subsidy negotiations starting September (WTO website)
July 15, 2021 — Optimism after WTO ministers meet on fisheries subsidies, despite splits, including links to other reports and more information. See also: WTO news story, opening and closing statements by the WTO director-General and the negotiations’ chair, video of press conference
June 30, 2021 — Fisheries subsidies chair floats new text 15 days before ministers meet, including chair’s statement for media. Links to the chair’s revised 8-page draft (TN/RL/W/276/Rev.1) and 17-page explanation (TN/RL/W/276/Rev.1/Add.1). See also this WTO news story
May 27, 2021 — The use of forced labor on fishing vessels, US proposal
May 11, 2021 — New fisheries subsidies text published as talks head for endgame, including chair’s statement for media. The 9-page new text is here, with a 26-page explanation (and correction, June 9) from the chair. See also this WTO news story
April 21, 2021 — Ministerial meeting eyed for July as fisheries subsidies negotiations enter final phase (WTO news story). See also this from AFP
April 21, 2021 — Negotiations’ chair, Ambassador Santiago Wills of Colombia: summary of statement to the meeting (WTO news) and statement for media
April 21, 2021 — Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala’s statement to heads of delegations in the negotiations, including a proposal for a meeting with ministers in July. Now also on the WTO website
April 12, 2021 — DG calls on WTO members to narrow remaining gaps in fisheries subsidies negotiations (WTO news story)
December 2020 — the chair’s draft consolidated text has been leaked here.
Top 25 sea-fishing nations
Developing countries dominate the top 25 major producers. Annual marine capture production in million tonnes, live weight. (The table might display better here.)
(These are the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s figures for annual catch sizes.
Subsidy figures are more difficult to obtain. One set of estimates is here, with data here. See also the WTO Secretariat’s more up-to-date and more comprehensive compilation circulated in November 2023, also based on FAO data.)
Updated December 8, 2023
| Country or territory | 1980s ave. | 1990s ave. | 2000s ave. | 2010s ave. | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2020 % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| China | 3.82 | 9.96 | 12.43 | 13.24 | 13.19 | 12.68 | 12.15 | 11.77 | 15 |
| Indonesia | 1.74 | 3.03 | 4.37 | 5.98 | 6.56 | 6.71 | 6.56 | 6.43 | 8 |
| Peru (total) | 4.14 | 8.10 | 8.07 | 5.13 | 4.13 | 7.15 | 4.80 | 5.61 | 7 |
| Peru (excluding anchoveta) | 2.50 | 2.54 | 0.95 | 1.01 | 0.83 | 0.96 | 1.29 | 1.22 | — |
| Russia | 1.51 | 4.72 | 3.20 | 4.28 | 4.59 | 4.84 | 4.72 | 4.79 | 6 |
| US | 4.53 | 5.15 | 4.75 | 4.89 | 5.01 | 4.77 | 4.81 | 4.23 | 5 |
| India | 1.69 | 2.60 | 2.95 | 3.55 | 3.94 | 3.62 | 3.67 | 3.71 | 5 |
| Viet Nam | 0.53 | 0.94 | 1.72 | 2.70 | 3.15 | 3.19 | 3.29 | 3.27 | 4 |
| Japan | 10.59 | 6.72 | 4.41 | 3.48 | 3.19 | 3.26 | 3.16 | 3.13 | 4 |
| Norway | 2.21 | 2.43 | 2.52 | 2.30 | 2.39 | 2.49 | 2.31 | 2.45 | 3 |
| Chile (total) | 4.52 | 5.95 | 4.02 | 2.16 | 1.92 | 2.12 | 1.98 | 1.77 | 2 |
| Chile (excluding anchoveta) | 4.00 | 4.45 | 2.75 | 1.40 | 1.29 | 1.27 | 1.23 | 1.27 | — |
| Philippines | 1.32 | 1.68 | 2.10 | 1.92 | 1.72 | 1.65 | 1.67 | 1.76 | 2 |
| Thailand | 2.08 | 2.70 | 2.38 | 1.46 | 1.30 | 1.39 | 1.41 | 1.52 | 2 |
| Malaysia | 0.76 | 1.08 | 1.31 | 1.46 | 1.47 | 1.45 | 1.46 | 1.38 | 2 |
| Rep. Korea | 2.18 | 2.25 | 1.78 | 1.56 | 1.35 | 1.39 | 1.41 | 1.36 | 2 |
| Morocco | 0.46 | 0.68 | 0.97 | 1.28 | 1.36 | 1.36 | 1.44 | 1.36 | 2 |
| Mexico | 1.21 | 1.18 | 1.31 | 1.42 | 1.46 | 1.47 | 1.42 | 1.35 | 2 |
| Iceland | 1.43 | 1.67 | 1.66 | 1.20 | 1.18 | 1.26 | 1.04 | 1.02 | 1 |
| Myanmar | 0.50 | 0.61 | 1.10 | 1.15 | 1.27 | 1.15 | 1.06 | 1.01 | 1 |
| Argentina | 0.41 | 0.99 | 0.94 | 0.79 | 0.81 | 0.82 | 0.80 | 0.82 | 1 |
| Spain | 1.21 | 1.13 | 0.92 | 0.96 | 0.94 | 0.93 | 0.88 | 0.80 | 1 |
| Oman | 0.11 | 0.12 | 0.15 | 0.29 | 0.35 | 0.55 | 0.58 | 0.79 | 1 |
| Denmark | 1.86 | 1.71 | 1.05 | 0.73 | 0.90 | 0.79 | 0.63 | 0.73 | 1 |
| Canada | 1.41 | 1.09 | 1.01 | 0.83 | 0.81 | 0.81 | 0.75 | 0.71 | 1 |
| Iran | 0.11 | 0.23 | 0.31 | 0.55 | 0.69 | 0.72 | 0.73 | 0.70 | 1 |
| Bangladesh | 0.18 | 0.28 | 0.46 | 0.61 | 0.64 | 0.65 | 0.66 | 0.67 | 1 |
| Total: 25 major producers | 50.49 | 66.99 | 65.87 | 63.90 | 64.32 | 67.23 | 63.41 | 63.17 | 80 |
| Total: all other producers | 21.61 | 14.86 | 15.72 | 15.89 | 17.16 | 17.27 | 16.69 | 15.62 | 20 |
| World total | 72.10 | 81.86 | 81.59 | 79.79 | 81.48 | 84.51 | 80.09 | 78.79 | 100 |
SOURCE: FAO, The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2022: pdf, Table 2, page 14 of Part 1 or html, Table 2
WTO news archive: fisheries subsidies
Image credits
Fishing boats (main photo) | Edi Libedinsky, Unspalsh licence
Others as captioned
Trade β Blog 