It is said at the negotiations meetings that talks are on to change fisheries rules within a global trade deal and this could save fishing industry of the world. Uruguay’s WTO ambassador Guillermo Valles Galmes said the talks, part of the long-running Doha round, suggests the World Trade Organisation (WTO) could play a key role in averting an environmental crisis.
According to the environmental advocacy groups the impact of overfishing on food stocks and biodiversity is an ecological threat comparable to climate change. Valles opined that the members of WTO along with civil society have recognizes that they could make a good case to show that the WTO, through trade, can help achieve broader environmental goals.
Valles added that generally it is found that there should be prohibitions of certain forms of subsidies that contribute to overfishing. According to him the WTO members were pushing for various exceptions to the subsidy bans and other proposals, and much work remained to be done to reach agreement on these. It is also said that banning operating subsidies on materials such as fuel, bait and ice, as proposed, would make many fishing fleets uneconomic.
Reacting on that the European Union expressed anxiety over the impact of a subsidies ban on fishing communities where there may be few other employment opportunities. Other nations like Norway and Canada share those fears as the ban would certainly have an impact on the deep-sea fishing operations of China, South Korea and Japan.
Senior campaign director Courtney Sakai told that advocacy group Oceana studies that the new trade rules would benefit the environment and stocks could rebound quickly within years if fishing is restricted.
