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Text: The draft sent to the 2024 WTO Ministerial Conference
Chair upbeat about members’ approach to final WTO fish subsidies push
Chair issues new draft before final fisheries subsidies month
Updates, timeline and links
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All articles tagged “fisheries subsidies” | Technical note on subsidies for fisheries
UPDATE: On April 12, 2024, chair Einar Gunnarsson circulated 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 discussed 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.
By Peter Ungphakorn
POSTED FEBRUARY 19, 2024 | UPDATED APRIL 13, 2024
The fisheries subsidies draft for the World Trade Organization’s February 26–29, 2024 Ministerial Conference in Abu Dhabi was published on February 16 along with a detailed explanation by the chair, Ambassador Einar Gunnarsson of Iceland.
“All members are very aware that next week, the eyes of the world will be on us,” Gunnarsson told journalists on February 19. (His full statement is here.)
“I believe that we have every possibility to deliver a meaningful outcome and bring these very long-running fisheries subsidies negotiations to a close at last. I will do everything in my power to help that chance become a reality.”
Achieving that is not guaranteed, and work continues in the final days before the conference to resolve at least some of the remaining differences.
(The draft and the explanation are presented side by side here.)
One of the significant changes in the latest draft is how to identify countries facing additional disciplines and scrutiny — described as the top tier of WTO members for fishing.
In the previous draft they were simply the 20 biggest subsidisers. Instead, in the new draft, countries in the top tier are all the developed countries in the WTO plus any developing countries that appear in the list of top 10 subsidisers, and possibly developing countries significantly involved in fishing outside their territorial waters (“distant water fishing”).
This will almost certainly put China, the world’s largest fishing nation and biggest subsidiser, in the top tier. Whether other large players among developing countries would also face extra scrutiny and disciplines — such as Indonesia and Vietnam — remains to be seen.
Several details of special treatment for developing countries are also unresolved, including the length of transition to the new disciplines and whether artisanal fishing can be subsidised if it reaches beyond 12 nautical miles from the shore to up to 200 nautical miles.
Negotiators have apparently agreed that developing countries can provide income subsidies outside the fishing season.
And criteria have been refined for subsidies considered to promote sustainable fish stocks. which would be allowed.
In searching for the final balance that will attract a consensus, members will need to start thinking about the internal trade-offs that they can make
— Einar Gunnarsson
Gunnarsson highlighted two broad areas of difference facing minsters in Abu Dhabi:
- Disciplines on subsidies for distant water fishing (Article A.2 in the draft), with a “wide span of views” remaining
- Exemptions for developing countries to subsidise artisanal and small-scale fishing, including whether this would apply to fishing within 12 or 200 nautical miles. The numbers are linked to other provisions. Some members say their flexibility on this is linked to flexibility elsewhere in the draft, Gunnarsson said
“I have been insisting with all of the delegations that I have met, that now is the time for everyone, from all sides of these issues, to look at the text as a package,” he said.
“The remaining issues that we need to resolve are all very much interlinked, such that changing one provision in a certain direction will certainly provide for a push toward making a change somewhere else in the opposite direction.
“In other words, in searching for the final balance that will attract a consensus, members will need to start thinking about the internal trade-offs that they can make.”
The draft is the result of four weeks of intensive work on the text from January 15 to February 9, 2024. It aims to fill in the “missing piece” in the 2022 Fisheries Subsidies Agreement — provisions curbing subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and overfishing.
In a report to the General Council two days before the drafts was circulated, Gunnarsson said that during the four weeks negotiators had participated in “52 bilateral consultations, 11 thematic sessions, two deep dive sessions, 38 small group meetings and 12 transparency sessions”.
“Work will not pause with the circulation of the new text,” Gunnarsson wrote in his 16-page detailed explanation accompanying the draft.
(The draft and the explanation are presented side by side here.)
“Indeed, members remain engaged, with me and with each other, trying to further narrow differences and eliminate brackets [indicating text that has not been agreed] in the time remaining before [the Ministerial Conference].”
Gunnarsson added that supplementary documents on the draft could be circulated before and during the conference.
(A detailed explanation of the previous draft is here. This version is an update, with a few issues resolved but differences remaining — they can be seen in square brackets indicating wording that has not been agreed. It is presented side-by-side with the chair’s explanations here .)
Ratification and aid fund
Meanwhile senior WTO officials seem to have accepted that the target of activating the 2022 Fisheries Subsidies Agreement at the Ministerial Conference will be missed.
For the agreement to take effect, 11o ratifications (two thirds of WTO members) are needed. So far, 60 have been received, 50 short of the target. Deputy Director-General Angela Ellard told journalists that 10 and perhaps a few more are in the pipeline. (Latest figures on ratifications are below)
The countries that have ratified “represent the full spectrum of regional and developmental diversity among WTO members,” she said.
The Ministerial Conference will include a celebration for countries that have ratified, but not the agreement taking effect.
Developing countries that have ratified will be eligible to apply for technical assistance from the Fisheries Funding Mechanism to help them implement the agreement, Ellard told journalists
The fund has received over 8 million Swiss francs from donor countries with over CHF5mn more pledged, she said. (Her full statement is here. The WTO’s news story is here)
The new draft has been moved here and presented side-by-side with the Gunnarsson’s 16-page explanation of the draft.
RECAP: WHAT THE TALKS ARE ABOUT
These post-2022 negotiations are sometimes called the “second wave” or “Fish 2“ after the bulk of the Fisheries Subsidies Agreement was settled at the June 2022 Ministerial Conference (the “first wave” or “Fish 1”).
In 2022, after 21 years of negotiation, members were still unable to agree on disciplines for subsidies contributing to overfishing and overcapacity — the “missing piece”, which is what they are now negotiating. Those disciplines are a key part of the UN Sustainable Development Goal 14, target 6, whose 2020 deadline for the WTO talks have now long been missed.
This is the only WTO agreement on subsidies (so far) whose main purpose is sustainability — the test criterion for disciplining the subsidies — and not to tackle market distortion directly (essentially unfair competition). For fish, market distortion comes under the general Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM) Agreement.
IN A NUTSHELL
Ratifications of the June 2022 Fisheries Subsidies Agreement
May 13, 2024
Total ratifications = 74
(= 45% of all members, = 67% of the first target)
First target (two thirds of 164 members) = 110
Additional ratifications needed to reach two thirds = 36
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
COUNTRIES THAT STILL HAD NOT RATIFIED THE 2022 AGREEMENT
BY FEBRUARY 19, 2024
Afghanistan, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Benin, Bolivia, Brazil, Brunei, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Democratic Republic Congo, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Eswatini, Georgia, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India*, Indonesia*, Israel, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Kyrgyz Republic, Laos, Lesotho, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia*, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico*, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco*, Mozambique, Myanmar*, Namibia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, North Macedonia, Norway*, Oman*, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Philippines*, Qatar, Russia*, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent & the Grenadines, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand*, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Türkiye, Uganda, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam*, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe (103)
* In the top 20 fishing nations by catch size (FAO data)
Gunnarsson’s statement
NEGOTIATING GROUP ON RULES — FISHERIES SUBSIDIES
Statement of the chair, Ambassador Einar Gunnarsson of Iceland
Press briefing, Monday, 19 February 2024, 14:00
Good afternoon, everyone. I am pleased to be with you here again since our last briefing in January, at the beginning of the “Fish Month”.
Last Monday was the closing of Fish Month. At the Special General Council [GC] meeting last Wednesday, I presented statistics on the vast amount of time Members spent in intensive negotiations during this period. The dedication of Members has been quite impressive, and the hundreds of hours spent were extremely productive. At the GC, I also restated that I am heartened by the positive engagement and problem-solving mode that all Members brought into the Fish Month. This to me is a clear signal that Members remain committed to and serious about reaching a meaningful outcome at the 13th Ministerial Conference in Abu Dhabi, or MC13, which starts one week from now.
Text WT/MIN(24)/W/10 — Additional Provisions on Fisheries Subsidies
On Friday — 16 February 2024 — the draft text on Additional Provisions on Fisheries Subsidies, accompanied by an explanatory Addendum, was circulated to Ministers as the basis for negotiations at MC13. This text addresses the outstanding issues that Ministers at the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference, or MC12, instructed the Negotiating Group on Rules to continue working on, relating to subsidies contributing to overcapacity and overfishing, with a view to making recommendations to the 13th Ministerial Conference. I am very pleased to be able to present this text for Ministers’ consideration, and hopefully it will help them focus on the key remaining issues.
In putting the text together, I drew on the proposals and ideas that we explored during the last year, especially during the discussions and robust collective work done during the Fish Month. The new text reflects my best attempt to identify the balance among Members’ positions that I see as most likely to build consensus. It goes without saying, however, that the final outcome will ultimately be in the hands of Members — but I remain optimistic.
Let me now walk you through the main elements of the new text. The text and accompanying Addendum are public, so I will not go into too much detail here.
The text retains the two-tiered hybrid* approach as the main discipline, with Members in the upper tier 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. The demonstration standard and the associated notification requirements have been further elaborated in the new text to ensure their clarity and operability.
The hybrid approach applies considerably closer scrutiny to the Members subject to the discipline, both developed WTO Members and developing country Members other than LDCs and those Members with a very small share of global catch. While the scrutiny of those Members in the upper tier is more intensive than what applies to those Members in the lower tier, in both cases the intention is that this increased scrutiny will pressure those Members to stop using subsidies in ways that harm the sustainability of fish stocks. During these negotiations, some Members proposed that the upper tier of the disciplines establish outright prohibitions on certain kinds of subsidies, or for permissible subsidization to be limited to the area within the subsidizing Member’s jurisdiction. But those proposals have not attracted convergence.
The main difference between the two-tier hybrid approach as it appears in the new text compared with previous texts is reflected in the criteria to differentiate the Members falling into the two tiers. This is an important way in which the disciplines of the upper tier have been strengthened.
In particular:
- As of entry into force, the stricter tier would apply to all developed country Members, and to developing country Members that are excluded from access to special and differential treatment, either through a legally binding provision or through a voluntary binding commitment. Both options for this SDT exclusion appear in the text for Members’ consideration.
- In addition, after a transition period, non-LDC Members and those developing country Members above a de minimis share of global catch that are “significantly engaged” in far distant water fishing activities, as well as developing country Members that are amongst the ten largest providers of fisheries subsidies by annual aggregate value, would also be required to apply the top tier. Notification and transparency provisions have been added to operationalize the identification of the top subsidizers.
- The remaining non-LDC and non-de minimis developing country Members would apply the lower tier of the discipline, but also after a transition period.
- The LDC Members as well as the developing country Members below the de minimis threshold, would be exempt from the discipline, meaning that they would not have to make the sustainability demonstration in respect of their fisheries subsidies. They would remain subject to the obligation to submit their regular subsidy notifications however.
Most of the special and differential treatment provisions in the new text remain largely similar to those in the previous versions of the text – one notable change being in respect of the exemption for the so-called artisanal fishing. The scope of this exemption now refers to subsidies to “small-scale and artisanal fishing or fishing related activities that are primarily low income, resource poor or livelihood in nature as operationally defined by a Member”. The geographical limitation now includes two bracketed figures: 12 and 200 nautical miles. A new subparagraph also has been added requiring Members to notify the operational definition they used to identify the kind of fishing for which they availed themselves of this exemption.
Another notable change from the previous version of the text concerns the SDT exclusion applicable to developing country Members engaged in what we have been calling “far distant water fishing”. This provision in the new text contains two alternative formulations. The first is essentially the same as the counterpart provision in the previous draft text, with certain amendments to avoid the possible unintended consequence of excluding from access to SDT developing country Members that have at most a small engagement in large scale, far distant water industrial fishing.
The second formulation, proposed by the Member most concerned, encourages developing country Members with competent fisheries management capabilities to make a binding commitment not to avail themselves of SDT. Irrespective of which formulation ultimately is included in these Additional Provisions, the Members falling within this provision would apply the stricter tier of the discipline as of entry into force of these provisions.
The new text also includes a review clause mandating the Committee on Fisheries Subsidies to review the overall impact of the new provisions and identify any necessary modifications to improve their effectiveness after a specified period of operation. This is to address the concerns of some Members that the disciplines need to be effective in improving the health of the world’s marine fish stocks.
Finally, the text contains a new article describing the relationship between the new Additional Provisions and the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies. In particular, the new provisions along with the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies would constitute the comprehensive disciplines referred to in Article 12 of that Agreement, and would achieve a comprehensive agreement on fisheries subsidies as referred to in the Ministerial Decision that adopted the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies at MC12.
Next steps
So, those are the main highlights of the text. I encourage you to read the explanatory Addendum for specific details.
We are now only a few days away from the Ministerial Conference, and I am sure that you will ask me how I envisage things will go in Abu Dhabi. In the text, I have indicated, with bracketing in some of the areas that require further work, even before we arrive in Abu Dhabi. Most notably these are:
- Disciplines on subsidies to distant water fishing, in Article A.2. The brackets aim to capture the wide span of views that remains on this provision; and I would also like to highlight
- The provision on artisanal and small-scale fishing, which contains the two bracketed figures of 12 and 200 nautical miles, with some Members linking the degree of their flexibility on the figures in this provision to other figures in the text, as well as to a bracketed new provision that would require notification of the subsidies in order to avail of the flexibilities in the disciplines.
There are as well other important areas where decisions will need to be made, some but not all of which appear in brackets. These include the various figures in the other SDT provisions, as well as transparency provisions relating to the use of forced labour, and to non-specific fuel subsidies.
As for reactions so far, since circulating the text I have met bilaterally with a large number of Members and groups, and most seem to share my assessment of where we should focus to make progress before the end of this week. To that end, I will continue to engage intensively with Members in the next couple of days in different configurations. As always, I will do my utmost to provide all Members with transparency regarding these further engagements.
As we enter the final phase of our fisheries subsidies work before MC13, I have been insisting with all of the delegations that I have met that now is the time for everyone, from all sides of these issues, to look at the text as a package. The remaining issues that we need to resolve are all very much interlinked, such that changing one provision in a certain direction will certainly provide for a push toward making a change somewhere else in the opposite direction. In other words, in searching for the final balance that will attract a consensus, Members will need to start thinking about the internal trade-offs that they can make.
I know that doing this in a multilateral negotiation based on consensus is never easy. But I continue to see it as quite possible. We have really narrowed things down, and I believe we can further streamline the remaining open issues to present Ministers with clear choices for the end game and I retain this optimism because of how I have seen and heard Members continuing to engage, even as we get down to the last, and as usually, most difficult, issues.
All Members are very aware that next week, the eyes of the world will be on us. I believe that we have every possibility to deliver a meaningful outcome and bring these very long-running fisheries subsidies negotiations to a close at last. I will do everything in my power to help that chance become a reality.
* tiered approach = categorising members according to the scale of their subsidies; hybrid approach = a general ban plus a list of examples of banned subsidies
Ellard’s statement
Statement of Deputy Director General Angela Ellard
Press briefing, Monday, 19 February 2024, 14:00
Good afternoon, everyone. It’s a pleasure to be here with you. Thank you, Ambassador Gunnarsson for the inspiring words, and I share your sense of positive momentum and optimism. I firmly believe we can finally get this done and that it’s within our grasp.
Let me take this opportunity to update you on the other ongoing processes in the WTO’s fisheries subsidies agenda. These are the progress towards entry into force of the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies that was concluded in MC12 in 2022, and the latest status of the WTO’s Fish Fund for developing and least developed country (LDC) Members which was also established as part of that agreement.
Progress towards entry into force
The Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies will enter into force when two-thirds of WTO Members have accepted it and deposited their instruments with the WTO. To save you from doing the math, that’s 110 that we need. The Director-General announced at the Special General Council Meeting last Wednesday that we have now secured 70 acceptances, including instruments that we have received and a few others that are on their way to us. Of the 110 acceptances that we need, that is nearly two thirds. With 40 more acceptances beyond that, the Agreement will enter into force. We are proceeding at a record pace.
We also have received very encouraging news from several other Members, many of which have announced that they will deposit at MC13. We are very much looking forward to acknowledging this impressive effort. We are planning a celebratory event at MC13 to honour the Members that will deposit on that occasion as well as all of those that have already done so up to now.
The Members that have accepted the Agreement to date represent the full spectrum of regional and developmental diversity among WTO Members. The latest Members to deposit their instruments of acceptance are Cabo Verde, Barbados, Dominica, Senegal, and Uruguay. Senegal is the second Least Developed Country Member to deposit (after The Gambia in December), while Barbados, Cabo Verde, and Dominica are Small-Island Developing States — we will congratulate their efforts and inspiring example at MC13.
Entry into force of the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies will be a significant boost for the multilateral trading system, for ocean sustainability, and for the millions of people across the world whose livelihoods depend on a healthy ocean. Developing and least-developed country Members that deposit their instruments of acceptance will also become eligible to seek assistance through the WTO’s Fisheries Funding Mechanism, and we know and appreciate that access to technical assistance and capacity building are a critical commitment made to these Members.
Fish Fund
Regarding the Fund, as you may know, the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies authorized the establishment of the Fisheries Funding Mechanism to assist developing Members and least-developed Members to implement the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies if they have deposited their instruments of acceptance. In the year or so since the Fund’s establishment, we have made great progress in terms of donations as well as in setting it up operationally.
The Members that have already donated have been enormously generous. As of today, the Fund has received over CHF 8 million in cash disbursed to us, plus additional commitments and pledges exceeding another CHF 5 million. The Members that have donated or pledged to the Fund thus far are Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Japan, Korea, Liechtenstein, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the European Union, and the United Kingdom.
We continue to make progress on the operational side for the fund. Following the key decisions that were taken at the first meeting of the Fund’s Steering Committee in January, the Committee members are engaging to initiate the practical work of putting in place all of the necessary measures, so that the Fund will be ready to support those Members that need it, assuming they have deposited their instruments of acceptance, as soon as the Agreement enters into force. With the new text now in the hands of Minsters and MC13 just a few days away, the spotlight is intensely focused on WTO fisheries-related matters. We remain optimistic on bringing Fish 2 home as well as our remarkable progress to reach entry into force of Fish 1. The Secretariat and the Fish Fund will continue to support our Members in all of these endeavours, to the benefit of the ocean, healthy fish stocks, and all who depend on them — which of course means all of us.
All articles tagged “fisheries subsidies” are here
Updates:
April 13, 2024 — adding the update box at the top on the chair circulating a copy of the “advance draft” from the Abu Dhabi Ministerial Conference, with his account of what happened.
Image credits:
Main image | Johnny Kennaugh, Unspalsh licence
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