WTO: reporting on informal negotiating meeting on fisheries subsidies (7)

A few days ago I wrote a post about a REUTERS « alert » quoting the Chair of the negotiating group as he spoke over the “new tone in the talks”.

The ICTSD has published in its website an article on the negotiating meeting which, according to the ICTSD, took place in the week of 4 October 2010.

An interesting feature of the meeting is that, always according to ICTSD, there was a plenary session (on 4 and 5 October) followed by discussions in smaller groups of delegates.

The article mentions that the latest submissions by the BRICs (Brazil, China, India) and Mexico (doc. TN/RL/GEN/163) and by the US (TN/RL/GEN/165) were discussed.

I discussed the BRICs + Mexico’s submission in my post of 13 February 2010. This submission included a proposal to prohibit to developed countries those « subsidies arising from the further transfer, by a payer Member government, of access rights that it has acquired from another Member government to fisheries within the jurisdiction of such other Member.». I wonder how those WTO Members that are very dependent on access fees paid by developed countries did react to this proposal.

I also discussed the US paper in my post of 24 April 2010. I also wonder whether there was some discussion about the suppression by the US of the exceptions for subsidies for retraining for activities other than fishing, re-education and early retirement.

It would also be interesting to know whether the US had, in relation to exceptions for disaster relief , “further thoughts as to its scope and placement as technical discussions of the text continue.” (see paragraph 8 in page 2 of the US submission). 

I imagine that the oil spill (a man-made disaster) in the Gulf of Mexico is providing enough food for thought to US negotiators on the scope and placement of exceptions for “disaster relief”. One suggestion could be to allow for “privately funded subsidies” (such as those requested by the State of Louisiana) to the fisheries sector.

Here is the link to the article by ICTSD:

http://ictsd.org/i/news/bridgesweekly/86991/

WTO: the BRICs and Mexico make proposals on "small-scale fisheries" and on... fisheries agreements

This week the so called BRICs (Brazil, China, India) and Mexico have made a joint written proposal modifying the Chair’s draft text agreement of November 2007.

The main thrust of the proposal is to present the other Members of the WTO with a definition of the so called « small scale fisheries ». According to this group of countries « small scale fisheries » have to be defined according to « socio-economic criteria ». Here are two paragraphs of the introductory part of the submission setting out the rationale for such proposal.

Here are extracts of the introductory part:

On the issue of small-scale, artisanal fisheries, the proponents decided to bring forward a definition based on socio-economic criteria, inspired by the current Article 6.2 of the Agreement on Agriculture. We believe that this is the best way for striking a satisfactory balance, in the absence of internationally-agreed definitions on those fisheries activities by other Organizations more directly involved in fisheries issues. Each Member should be able to work on its own definition, insofar as the criteria set forth in the future WTO disciplines are observed.

On the larger scale fisheries, criteria such as the boat size and the area of capture were replaced with provisions structured on the rights Members have under the international law. For those activities the controls in Articles IV and V would fully apply, in order to implement the Hong Kong mandate consistently with its main goal: to bar harmful fisheries subsidies that create over-fishing and produce overcapacity, as well as distort trade or production. Artificial distinctions such as the Exclusive Economic Zone limitation and the 10 meters threshold were thus deleted.

Another important feature of the proposal is that it introduces new language, under Article III, that would prohibit to developed countries those « subsidies arising from the further transfer, by a payer Member government, of access rights that it has acquired from another Member government to fisheries within the jurisdiction of such other Member.» if concluding such agreement with a developing country.

As an example all payments made in the context of the fisheries agreements concluded by the EU with developing countries could come under such prohibition.

Here is the aformentioned language:

III.4 III.3 Subsidies referred to in Article I.1(g) shall not be prohibited where the access rights are acquired by a developing country Member and the fishery in question is within the EEZ of a developing country Member,

 The fact that the words "the access rights are acquired by a developing country Member and" have been added imply that, to benefit from the exemption to the prohibition under Article I.1(g), the fisheries agreement must be concluded exclusively between developing countries. At least this is my interpretation.

Strangely enough the introductory part is silent about such substantial change to the Chair’s draft.

The full text of the submission, with WTO reference TN/RL/GEN/163 can be found at the WTO’s website.

WTO: fisheries subsidies negotiations at the 2009 Forum of the North American Association of Fisheries Economists (2)

Going once more through the programme of this conference I noticed that another session of the conference included a presentation of a paper related to fisheries subsidies.


Here is the session:

Wednesday, May 20 10:30 am – 11:30 am
Bioeconomic Modeling II
Chair: Emi Uchida
Patricia Arceo and Bianka Perez-Saavedra, Effects of Subsidies in the Multispecies Fisheries off Veracruz, México: a Conceptual Model
Naomi Foley, Viktoria Kahui and Claire Armstrong, The Production Function Approach – Estimating Linkages between Redfish and Cold Water Coral on the Norwegian Coast
Monica Galligan, A Computable General Equilibrium Model to Illustrate Economic Effects Of Fishery Conservation and Management Measures
Min-Yang Lee and Richard Brazee, The Effects of Rigidity and Limited Information on Optimal Fisheries Policy

MEXICO: subsidies in sight for the Mexican fleet?

In the past weeks Mexican fishermen having been staging protests against price increases in diesel. Some of them had even threatened to block oil installation of PEMEX, the Mexican oil company.

The actions by fishermen were ended after representatives from government and from fishermen signed a memorandum of undertanding on 31 january 2009. The memorandum contained a number of provisions whereby money will be provided by the government for scrapping of vessels.

Eventhough the detailed content of the memorandum of understanding, the press has quoted representatives of the fishermen as saying that a total of 170 million Mexican Pesos (11.7 million USD) will be paid to fishermen for scrapping of vessels.

Here is the link to the press release by the government (in Spanish):

http://www.presidencia.gob.mx/prensa/sagarpa/?contenido=41976

This is a link to a press article with statements from the fishermen representatives:

http://www.poresto.net/campeche/19750--retiraran-mas-barcos

Mexican government provding subsidies for projects in aquaculture and fisheries

The Mexican government approved on June 19, 2008 a total budget of 429 million pesos to support the growth of the fisheries and aquaculture sector.

Here is a link with more information (in Spanish) on these subsidies.

http://www.conapesca.sagarpa.gob.mx/wb/cona/cona_19_de_junio_de_2008_mexico_df