Bid to end fish subsidies hits opposition at WTO
Date: 08-May-02
Country: SWITZERLAND
Author: Robert Evans
The eight - ranging from Iceland in the North Atlantic to the Philippines, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Australia and New Zealand in the Pacific Basin - argue the subsidies have led to overfishing and massive depletion of a major food resource.
Their proposal, tabled at talks on reshaping trading rules as part of the new Doha Round of trade liberalisation negotiations, won support from several other countries whose economies are partly dependent on the industry.
But heavy subsidisers Japan and South Korea, with some support from the European Union and Canada, are insisting that fishing issues should be kept out of the 144-nation WTO, according to the sources.
The outline proposal by the eight - whose stance is enthusiastically backed by global environmental bodies like the Swiss-based World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) International - said subsidies made up 20-25 percent of revenues in the sector.
It argues the subsidies give rich states, the only ones who can afford them, the ability to sweep up fish from the ocean and destroy the industry in many developing countries for whom fish are a key export item.
THREAT TO ECONOMIC SURVIVAL
Iceland told the meeting its economic survival depended on a reduction in the size of fleets operating off its coasts and the catches they took since 50 percent of its foreign earnings came from fish exports.
"Our efforts to manage fish stocks in a sustainable manner are being undermined by our neighbours," an Icelandic diplomat told the WTO session in a clear reference to the 15-nation European Union where fleets have massive government support.
Delegates from Peru, Ecuador and Chile said their economies were badly hit by industrial fishing carried out by long-distance fleets - from EU countries as well as Japan and South Korea.
Earlier this week New Zealand said its own trade in seafood was being badly hit by the subsidised operators from Europe, North America and North Asia who were able to offer cheap prices on world markets because of the financial support they received.
But the sources said Japan told delegates at the WTO meeting the eight - dubbed "The Friends of Fish" - were exaggerating the problem, arguing that 95 percent of fish were caught by national fleets within national waters.
The remaining five percent, a Japanese diplomat told the meeting, should be handled through talks within the framework of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and not through the WTO.
Canada, according to the sources, opposed separate discussion of the fisheries issue in the talks - aimed at reshaping the WTO's six-year-old overall agreement on subsidies to all economic sectors.
The EU - where the executive Commission is seeking a 40 percent cut in the fleet against strong opposition from member countries like Spain, France and Italy - indicated it would prefer to focus on stock management rather than subsidies.
