Fish talks at WTO unfair, unbalanced, say small scale fishers
Small-scale fisher organisations from India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Ecuador, and Gambia have asked fisheries subsidies negotiations to be kept out of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and said that the ongoing negotiations on curbing overcapacity and overfishing (OCOF) subsidies are “unfair and unbalanced”.
They said that the exemptions for small-scale fishers across developing countries is being restricted by imposing irrational conditionalities.
The World Forum of Fisher Peoples and World Forum of Fish Harvesters and Fish Workers have raised concerns at the negotiations which seek disciplines on subsidies such as those for construction, acquisition and modernisation of vessels.
“Our biggest concern lies with the very limited special and differential treatment provision that proposes exemption for small-scale fishing across developing countries (in the draft text),” the two organisation said in a statement after the recent SSF Summit and Committee on Fisheries meeting in Rome.
Special and differential treatment (S&DT) allows developing and poor countries benefits such as longer time to implement agreements and binding commitments.
“We are aware that the comprehensive agreement, once concluded, will have serious implications for the future of small-scale fishers and Indigenous peoples across the world,” the organisations said in a statement.
They sought the negotiations to be moved to the Food and Agriculture Organization from the WTO.
The ongoing negotiations also seek to put in place disciplines for
