WTO to meet to negotiate Fisheries Subsidies Agreement

The World Trade Organization (WTO) members will be holding another cluster of meetings this week to negotiate a  #FisheriesSubsidies agreement, which is among the immediate priorities of the next WTO Director-General, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, according to a tweet by the @wto on Wednesday.

The WTO negotiations on fisheries subsidies were launched in 2001 at the Doha Ministerial Conference, with a mandate to “clarify and improve” existing WTO disciplines on fisheries subsidies. That mandate was elaborated in 2005 at the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference, including with a call for prohibiting certain forms of fisheries subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and overfishing.

At the 2017 Buenos Aires Ministerial Conference (MC11), ministers decided on a work programme to conclude the negotiations by aiming to adopt, at the next Ministerial Conference, an agreement on fisheries subsidies which delivers on Sustainable Development Goal 14.6

Amaka E. Nliam