The Philippines is hoping that the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) negotiations on fisheries subsidies will be concluded this year, the Trade department said Friday.
Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez and Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar “encouraged” trade and agricultural ministers at a virtual WTO meeting on July 15 “to speed up negotiations to come up with new disciplines to eliminate subsidies that contribute to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, overfished stocks, and overcapacity and overfishing in time for the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC12) to be held by December this year,” the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said in a statement.
Mr. Lopez said the negotiations will only be completed if there is strong political will and diplomatic flexibility.
The DTI said the draft text of the agreement “contains a carve-out that if a prohibited subsidy occurs in disputed waters, it will not be addressed by a WTO panel.”
The department said Mr. Dar urged the WTO members to reconsider the language, as it “will provide a loophole for countries involved in maritime disputes to be exempted from the disciplines.”
He said “flexibility and exemptions for poor and vulnerable artisanal fishers in developing countries and least-developed countries should not create a permanent exception from effective disciplines to address overcapacity and overfishing,” the department said.
The DTI also noted that the decline in fish stocks could worsen poverty and endanger coastal communities that are dependent on fishing.
“Fish stocks are at risk of collapsing in many parts of the world due to overexploitation. An estimated 34% of global stocks are overfished compared with 10% in 1974, reflecting a pace of exploitation where the fish population cannot replenish itself,” the department said, citing data from the UN UN Food and Agriculture Organization. – Arjay L. Balinbin
