Explained | Why is India fighting the US, EU at WTO over a global fishing deal? Its implications for her oceans

Representational image: Reuters

A long planned, but never enforced global deal aims to ban fishing subsidies to protect marine ecosystems against over fishing.

As the only platform that can set and enforce global agreements to rein in distorted subsidies, the World Trade Organization (WTO) has been entrusted by world leaders with the important task of fixing rules on fishing subsidies.

Given its enormous impact on fishermen, marine exports and the fact that fish constitute food for poorer nations, the negotiations have been anything but calm.

There is also little doubt that it will have important consequences for millions of Indian fishermen and the country’s marine export sector.

As talks reach a crucial stage, Moneycontrol takes a deep dive into just how much of the global oceans can be fished.

Why are nations talking about fishing?

The Decision on Fisheries Subsidies taken by WTO members in December 2017 is a step forward in multilateral efforts to comply with global sustainability goals and commit members to prohibit government subsidies, which contribute to overcapacity and over fishing.

The WTO members have also pledged to eliminate subsidies that contribute to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. However, this rule will have clauses allowing special and differential treatment for developing and least-developed countries, which are dependent heavily on fishing for food and income.

The talks are aimed at fulfilling a key Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). The 'SDG 14: Life Below Water' aims to tackle environmental degradation of the oceans.

Why is this required?

According to the latest data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), fish stocks are at risk of collapsing in many parts of the world due to over exploitation. It is estimated that 34 percent of global stocks are over fished compared to 10 percent in 1974. In other words, they are being exploited at a pace where the fish population cannot replenish itself.

Declining fish stocks threaten to worsen poverty and endanger coastal communities that rely on fishing. Roughly 39 million people depend on captured fisheries for their livelihood, according to the WTO.

Healthy seas are also important for food security, with fish providing 20 percent of animal protein needs, on an average for 3.3 billion people.

The WTO admits that in theory, fishing should be held in check by its very environment - low fish stocks should mean more time consumed in the process of fishing and increased costs. The problem, however, is that very often state funding keeps unprofitable fishing fleets at sea. Global fisheries subsidies are estimated to range from $ 14 billion to $ 54 billion per year.

What has been the story so far?

The creation of fisheries subsidy disciplines has been in the works since the Doha Development Agenda was launched by WTO in 2001. In 2017, at the 11th WTO Ministerial Conference, the largest global meet for multilateral trade talks held biennially, member nations simply committed to securing a deal on fisheries subsidies by the end of 2019.

They also committed to improving the reporting of existing fisheries subsidy programmes, the deadline for which was set for the 12th Ministerial Conference scheduled to be held in Geneva this year.

Members had been negotiating on the basis of a draft consolidated text, first introduced in June 2020, with revised versions introduced in November and December 2020.

On May 11, 2021, a new draft was brought in, which aimed at bringing members closer to the agreement ahead of a July 15 virtual meeting of ministers. Following marathon discussions, the text has since been revised to include changes that are intended to point members towards the convergence needed to successfully conclude negotiations. This is where talks are currently at.

Where does India stand?

India has said that it is very keen to finalise the agreement because irrational subsidies and over fishing by many countries is hurting her fishermen and their livelihoods. However, it remains disappointed at the lack of right balance and fairness in the agreement.

Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said on July 15 that earlier measures allowed unequal and trade-distorting entitlements for select developed members, while unfairly constraining less developed members who did not have the capacity and resources to support their industry or farmers then.

Given that fisheries are a common endowment to humanity and a global public commons, he said that the sharing of this should be in an equitable and just manner. He also said it is essential that big subsidisers take greater responsibility to reduce their subsidies and fishing capacities, in accordance with the principles of ‘Polluter Pays'.