WTO must complete an ambitious fisheries subsidies agreement

Abstract

The World Trade Organization (WTO) achieved a significant milestone in June 2022 by adopting a much-anticipated fisheries subsidies agreement 1 , aligning with strong recommendation from the global scientific community 2 . This pivotal agreement marks a crucial advance towards ensuring the sustainability of our ocean. For the first time, it establishes binding global regulations compelling governments to assess the legality and sustainability of the fishing activities they subsidize. Harmful subsidies are a key driver of overfishing which is a major threat to ocean biodiversity 3 . Subsidies also exacerbate CO 2 emissions from fishing sectors by incentivizing over-capacity 4 and putting coastal livelihoods and food security at risk 5 . Within this agreement, trade ministers committed to further negotiations on unresolved matters. Such matters include crafting new regulations to diminish subsidies contributing to overfishing and excessive fishing capacity (Fig. 1 ) that have given some countries an unfair advantage in exploiting the ocean 6 . Removing harmful subsidies and therefore overfishing, will help to rebuild diverse fish populations, subsequently leading to increased levels of sustainable catches, and income for fishers. Rebuilt fish populations would also help reduce carbon emissions 7 , 8 . Fig. 1 Fisheries subsidies amount by category and type and grouped by developed and developing country groups (dark vs. light blue, respectively), for 2018 6 . Full size image