SA is inching closer to adopting the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) agreement on fisheries subsidies after a decade of negotiations, with local players saying the pact will help level the playing field with their offshore counterparts.
Department of environment, forestry and fisheries spokesperson Peter Mbelengwa said the agreement on fisheries subsidies seeks to establish for the first time a binding set of global rules to curb harmful fishing subsidies that are provided by several foreign governments to the fishing sector.
“SA does not provide fisheries subsidies, but as a member of the WTO, participates in all WTO fisheries subsidy negotiations to ensure the interests of the SA fishing sector are taken into account. The agreement is the first multilateral trade deal to have environmental sustainability objectives at its core, primary objectives which SA supports,” Mbelengwa said.
“The agreement is intended to contribute to better alignment between subsidy policies and sustainability objectives. The negotiations on the agreement on fisheries subsidies have been going on for over ten years. The department of international relations & cooperation (Dirco) is negotiating on behalf of SA and has not yet acceded to the agreement.”
For the agreement to enter into force, two-thirds of the WTO’s 164 members must formally accept the protocol of the agreement by depositing an “instrument of acceptance” with the world body.
Features of the agreement include the prohibition of support for illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, a ban on fishing overfished stocks and an end to subsidies for fishing on unregulated high seas.
It does not cover subsidies to aquaculture and inland fishing.
“The SA deep-sea trawling industry association is supportive of SA being a party to the WTO fisheries subsidies agreement because SA fisheries are not subsidised, but (local) seafood producers compete against producers from countries that do subsidise their fisheries. We also understand that subsidised fisheries contribute to the over-capacity of fishing fleets, resulting in unsustainable fisheries,” said Johann Augustyn, the association’s secretary.
The industry body “has engaged with Dirco throughout the negotiations. We met with the responsible ambassador several times and have commented in detail on all the draft texts in the past few years. We objected to the WTO determination that the rebate on the Road Accident Fund levy that is given to fishers and fishing companies is a subsidy, but our objection was rejected.”
New Zealand on Friday became the sixteenth country alongside the EU to formally accept the agreement. Other countries that have adopted the agreement include the US, China, Nigeria, Japan and Canada.
WTO director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala welcomed New Zealand being the first in the Oceania region to back the agreement.
“I am hopeful this will encourage more countries in the Oceania region and the rest of the world to formally accept the agreement, support its implementation, and usher in the speedy entry into force of the WTO’s historic agreement for ocean sustainability.”
According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, global fish production reached about 179-million tonnes in 2018 with a majority being for human consumption, but 35% of the global harvest is either lost or wasted each year.
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