TWN Info Service on WTO and Trade Issues (Apr20/05)
6 April 2020
Third World Network

The CSO letter in full is available at: https://twn.my/announcement/fisheries/Call%20to%20Halt%20Fisheries%20Subsidies
%20Negotiations%20in%20the%20Middle%20of%20the%20COVID%2019%20Crisis.pdf 

CSOs call on WTO DG to halt the fisheries negotiations
Published in SUNS #9094 dated 3 April 2020

Geneva, 2 Apr (D. Ravi Kanth) — The World Trade Organization Director-General Roberto Azevedo must immediately “halt” the fisheries subsidies negotiations at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic is ravaging the world, a global coalition of fishers’ groups along with farmers, workers, and civil society organizations told the DG on 1 April.

Amidst the complete lockdown in many countries and escalating loss of human lives on an exponential scale due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the WTO DG and the General Council chair, Ambassador David Walker of New Zealand, seem determined to press ahead with fisheries subsidies negotiations through any route that is available, said several trade envoys, who asked not to be identified.

Among the global, regional and national groups that endorsed the call to halt the fisheries subsidies negotiations are the Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND); FIAN International; IBON International; Pacific Network on Globalisation; Social Watch; Society for International Development (SID); Third World Network; 11.11.11, Belgium; Attac, France; All Goa Responsible Fishers Association, India; Global Justice Now, UK; Consumers Association of Penang (CAP), Malaysia; IT for Change, India; and Transnational Institute (TNI), Netherlands.

Several prominent individuals have also signed onto the letter addressed to the WTO Director-General on 1 April.

The chair of the Doha rules negotiations, Ambassador Santiago Wills from Colombia, had earlier cancelled “either face-to-face or virtual meetings,” on grounds of the COVID-19 restrictions and logistics constraints.

However, the chair urged members to conduct an exchange of views on the Indian and LDC proposals in writing through questions by 26 March.

Subsequently, Ambassador Wills said the WTO secretariat will compile inputs provided by members to be distributed to all delegations.

He said the proponents – India and the LDC group – “are invited then to respond in writing to the comments and questions received, again through the Secretariat, by close of business on Friday 3 April.”

Following this, the WTO Secretariat will compile the replies into a single document to be distributed on 6 April.

More disturbingly, after their recent telephonic consultations with several trade envoys on the issue of the date and venue for holding the WTO’s 12th ministerial conference (MC12), the DG and the GC chair suggested that the fisheries subsidies negotiations need to be concluded by hook or crook to comply with the Goal 14.6 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The DG and the GC chair have ignored other SDGs for fighting hunger through a permanent solution for food security for developing countries, pointed out several trade envoys, who asked not to be quoted.

“It is shocking that the Rules chair and the WTO Secretariat want to conduct negotiations even as officials in Geneva and in capitals are locked up in their houses due to COVID-19 pandemic,” said a trade envoy, who asked not to be quoted.

Against this backdrop, a large coalition of fishermen and fisheries groups supported by farmers, workers, and civil society organisations (CSOs) around the world issued a letter to the WTO Director-General on 1 April to “immediately halt the ongoing fisheries subsidies negotiations at the WTO.”

They reminded the DG that “countries are busy attending to the unprecedented health calamity posed by COVID-19, which represents a phenomenal challenge not only to our health but to the current & future economic, social, and political stability across our countries.”

“Most countries are busy deploying their financial and human resources to fighting this monumental battle,” the global coalition of fishermen and fisheries, farmers, workers, and civil society organizations told the WTO DG.

They expressed consternation that “in the middle of this (the enveloping COVID-19 pandemic), the World Trade Organization (WTO) is continuing to negotiate an outcome on fisheries subsidies in the most non-transparent, non-inclusive and ad-hoc manner.”

While “the aim to meet the SDG 14.6 target this year is laudable,” they reminded the DG that “these are exceptional times.”

Even as “Geneva is under a lock-down, and face-to-face negotiations are on hold, the chair for fisheries subsidies negotiations Ambassador Santiago Wills of Colombia is tabling texts at his own discretion.”

Further, “the lack of adequate consultations is introducing undue bias in the text written by the Chair with the support of the WTO Secretariat, which remains under the heavy influence of some advanced countries,” the global coalition of fishermen and fisheries groups, and civil society organizations argued.

In his first draft text circulated on 9 March on Overfishing and Overcapacity, the chair chose to place “Special and Differential Treatment (S&DT), a key demand from a number of developing countries and LDCs, under a placeholder.”

“The Chair ignored important proposals by India, the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) and the Least Developed Country (LDC) Group on special and differential treatment (S&DT), in drafting this text,” the groups argued.

“This is clearly in contravention of the full mandate of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14.6, which includes S&DT while asking for disciplines on fisheries subsidies for IUU (illegal, unreported, and unregulated) fishing and to control Overfishing and Overcapacity,” the international coalition of fishermen and fisheries groups said in their letter to the DG.

The letter laid bare the follies committed by the Chair of the fisheries subsidies negotiations.

They include:

1. Apparently, because of strenuous objections by several developing countries, the Chair organized a “virtual consultation” on the 20th of March to discuss proposals by India and LDC Group on S&DT for both IUU and Overfishing & Overcapacity.

1. But this had to be cancelled as many developing countries simply do not have the infrastructure and option to effectively join, especially given the situation in their countries.

1. The Chair then invited responses through email by the 26th of March, which is also difficult for many Member States, especially from developing countries where human resources including those in the trade ministry, are now redirected to fighting the pandemic.

1. Delegates may also not be able to communicate well with their capitals and decision-makers under this situation, given the expansive lock-downs in most countries.

1. Needless to say, after receiving responses from Member States and then from the proponents by the 3rd of April, the Chair (with the support of the secretariat) will come up with another personal text.

The international coalition of fisheries-related groups expressed grave concern that the Chair’s opaque negotiating process “will presumably continue in this manner and may end in a General Council Meeting in June-July in Geneva to conclude the negotiations. This process, which is pushed by some developed countries, will put the whole outcome in jeopardy.”

The letter pointed out that “this rush to conclude the negotiations in spite of the inability to hold direct discussions, when the Nur-Sultan (meeting in Kazakhstan) June Ministerial Conference has been indefinitely postponed and all our countries and their people are battling the immense challenge of COVID-19, is baffling.”

Moreover, they pointedly told the DG that “since the next Ministerial is most likely to be postponed to the middle or end of 2021, there is simply no rationale for continuing with the negotiations in such a haphazard and hasty manner.”

They argued that “multilateral negotiations on an important issue such as fisheries subsidies, which is a critical livelihood issue for millions especially in developing countries, cannot be conducted in this manner.”

This is more so, “when the development concerns of the majority of WTO’s developing and least developed country members are clearly not being taken on board.”

“A biased and undemocratic process being conducted through emails with unwarranted haste will inevitably lead to a biased and unfair outcome and will further damage not only the development mandate of the WTO but the WTO’s reputation as an institution for years to come,” they warned the DG.

Finally, they called on the WTO and the Chair to immediately halt the fisheries negotiations and ask Member States to discontinue participating in this process until it can be pursued in a transparent, inclusive and rational manner, which is not possible unless normalcy is restored across the globe.

“Our countries would be much better served if delegates focused on domestic and global needs in fighting the COVID-19 battle,” the coalition of fisheries groups, farmers, workers, and civil society organizations told the DG.

“In fact, the WTO can actually help, for example, by easing intellectual property rules imposed through the WTO’s Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement and easing access to treatment for COVID-19 affected patients,” they argued emphatically.

“And we can have at least a glimmer of hope left for a fair and rational outcome on fisheries subsidies that respects the full mandate of SDG 14.6, and in particular, Special & Differential Treatment, in the future,” the signatories to the call for halting the fisheries subsidies negotiations argued.

The letter to the DG was also cc-d to the chair of the Doha Rules negotiations Ambassador Santiago Wills. +