WTO: Rescuing the inexhaustible…(The issue of fisheries subsidies in the international trade policy)

This is the title of an article published by Ekaterina Anyanova in the Journal of International Commercial Law and Technology Vol 3, No 3 (2008).

At the end of the article the author draws a series of conclusions which I found worthwile to reflect here:

1. Separate national efforts on reducing or elimination of fisheries subsidies won’t bring too much. In opposite, it would rather reflect the fisheries management slogan of David Cushing ‘sink every other boat but mine’.
2. During the UNLOSC III, some participants even proposed to abolish the freedom of fishing and establish “the species approach to fisheries management”. This regime requires not only the coordinate work of governments and international organizations. The significant contribution of universities, fishermen, scientists is “a must”. If economy is a help to biology, why can’t biology be of help to the economy.
3. The overfishing problem could be (in part) solved by the farming of fishing resources.
4. Moreover, the statistics shows that over 15 000 fish species are still not identified. Perhaps, nature will help humanity.
5. Environmentalists stress that the proper fisheries management could assist almost totally to eliminate the harmful impact on the environment.
6. Over one half of the world trade in fish and fish products belongs to the developing countries. Paragraph 28 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration makes an express reference to the importance of fishing sector to the developing countries. It is not occasional.
7. The fishing industry means work for 36 million people each year only in primary sectors. Before taking any concrete decision on the reduction or abolition of the fisheries’ subsidies, one has also to consider them.

The article can be downloaded at the following address:

http://www.doaj.org/doaj?func=searchArticles&q1=fisheries+subsidies&f1=all&b1=and&q2=&f2=all