Remarks by DG Okonjo-Iweala

Thank you, Clarisse.

Excellencies, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome and thank you for joining this session on implementing the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies — with a focus on the challenges and opportunities for developing Members. I am happy to begin by announcing the launch of our publication on this topic, which I’ll be presenting shortly. I’m so proud of what they’ve been able to do and I really want to take this opportunity to thank the fisheries subsidies team that put this together.

The Agreement

You all know that at our Twelfth Ministerial Conference, WTO Members adopted a new Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies. The Agreement is the first broadly-focused binding multilateral agreement on ocean sustainability. It also is the first WTO Agreement with environmental sustainability at its core. I think I have to pause here and share with you the excitement in Lisbon at the UN Ocean Conference, where this agreement was talked about. I can tell you that when this Agreement was announced, the whole hall erupted in clapping and they gave Ambassador Wills a good standing ovation. That is just to tell you that the work you’ve done — it’s the members that negotiated and came to this agreement — the work you’ve done is recognized elsewhere.

The agreement was urgently needed. In 1970, only 10 per cent of global fish stocks were overfished, according to FAO data. Today, some estimates including that from the Minderoo Foundation in Australia say that nearly 50 per cent of assessed stocks are overfished. An estimated $22 billion per year in harmful government subsidies incentivizes unsustainable fishing. The economic losses are immense — the World Bank put the cost of perverse incentives along with other poor fisheries management at some $83 billion a year in economic losses, without counting the $22 billion in harmful subsidies that I just referred to. Allowing fish stocks to recover could turn around this dire situation, transforming these losses into net benefits and thus economic stability for millions, without the need for subsidies.

Using our system of binding multilateral trade rules to address an issue of the global commons is new, and holds great promise for the WTO, the oceans, and the planet. This in turn has great promise for people: for the many millions of mainly poor people who depend on fisheries for livelihoods, employment and nutrition, ocean sustainability represents economic sustainability to all of these people. This is, of course, what Aid for Trade is about — and I’m telling everyone we will have to change it to Invest for Trade next year, expect to see a new approach — this is what it is about: helping disadvantaged people around the world integrate into, and enjoy the benefits of, the global trading system.

Implementation and assistance

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To turn the tide on global fish stocks, reaching the agreement was a vitally important step – but implementing it is what will matter. When fully operationalized and enforced by Members, the new disciplines will both eliminate subsidies to Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing, to fishing regarding overfished stocks, and to fishing on the unregulated high seas; and will incorporate a sustainability focus into future use of fisheries subsidies.

Implementing the Agreement so that it can deliver on its potential will pose some challenges for all WTO Members, and especially for developing country and LDC Members. For example, these challenges include:

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Source:  WTO