Members kick off 2019 with first cluster of fisheries subsidies meetings

Members kick off 2019 with first cluster of fisheries subsidies meetings

      WTO members in the Negotiating Group on Rules held their first cluster of fisheries subsidies meetings for the year on 14-18 January. Some members indicated they were working on proposing new draft texts covering certain areas of fisheries subsidies disciplines that WTO members had committed to agree by end-2019.
    In line with the January to July 2019 work programme for fisheries subsidies negotiations agreed by the Negotiating Group, the week-long cluster of meetings was composed of a mix of bilateral talks, other member-organized discussions, and consultations open to all delegations.
    The work in open-ended consultations was organized around four main topics: subsidies to illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing; subsidies to fishing where stocks are overfished; subsidies contributing to fishing overcapacity and to overfishing; and cross-cutting issues which include special and differential treatment for developing and least-developed members, dispute settlement, institutional issues, and notification and transparency.
       Based on suggestions from members, the Chair selected four delegates to act as facilitators for each of these areas and they reported to the Negotiating Group their impressions of where the negotiations stood and what issues emerged during the week.
Some members indicated they were working with other delegations on drafting new language for certain areas of the fisheries subsidies disciplines, for consideration by the Negotiating Group. A number of delegations underlined the importance of receiving such new contributions as soon as possible.
         The next cluster of fisheries subsidies meetings will be on 25 February-1 March.