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TWN
Info Service on WTO and Trade Issues (Jun20/14) Geneva, 16 Jun (D. Ravi Kanth) – Developing countries remain concerned over the sudden announcement by the Chair of the Doha Rules negotiations to finalize a proposed agreement on fisheries subsidies by the end of the year. This sudden announcement comes despite the rising wave of new Covid-19 cases in South America, South Asia, and Africa, trade envoys told the SUNS. Even as the Covid-19 pandemic is rapidly peaking in many developing countries, forcing governments to announce fresh lockdown measures, the chair, Ambassador Santiago Wills of Colombia, said, in an email sent to members on 15 June, that he will accelerate text-based negotiations in the fall (after the summer break). The chair said “due to the pandemic, it was decided not to hold MC12 in early June, and our work on fisheries subsidies also was temporarily paused as restrictions on movement and the need to prioritize public health concerns made it difficult for many delegations to focus on the negotiating issues and to participate in meetings.” “The commitment by all of our heads of Government to finish the negotiations on fisheries subsidies by 2020 is still there, and I have not heard any delegation suggest changing this deadline,” the chair said in his email. According to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 14.6, leaders had agreed by 2020 to “prohibit certain forms of fisheries subsidies which contribute to overcapacity and overfishing, and eliminate subsidies that contribute to IUU [illegal, unreported and unregulated] fishing, and refrain from introducing new such subsidies, recognizing that appropriate and effective special and differential treatment for developing and least developed countries should be an integral part of the WTO fisheries subsidies negotiation”. “Now, with restrictions in Switzerland being relaxed and meetings on WTO premises resuming, I believe that the time has come to resume our work, albeit in a gradual way,” Ambassador Wills said. “As first steps, therefore, before the summer break I intend to distribute a first draft of the basic consolidated document as I had planned to do in March, and then hold a first round of discussion of that document,” the chair suggested. The chair said “the idea is hopefully to put the Negotiating Group in position to hit the ground running in the fall in a full text-based negotiating mode.” Ambassador Wills said that he will hold a heads of delegation (HoD) meeting on 25 June during which he will present the “draft of the basic consolidated document on disciplines to subsidies for IUU fishing, overfished stocks, and overfishing and overcapacity with some cross-cutting elements, such as scope and definitions.” He said the 25 June meeting will not be “a negotiating session”, suggesting that he will “simply introduce and explain the document.” Subsequently, the chair will hold a second meeting on 21 July “for initial reactions” at the HoD level, and also announce a work programme for the fall (after the summer break), Ambassador Wills said. In his email, he said the facilitators have circulated revised working papers on IUU fishing, and overfishing and overcapacity. He said the third facilitator indicated that his draft of December (RD/TN/RL/119/Rev.1) on overfished stocks “still reflected the state-of-play for overfished stocks.” The facilitators who are tasked with preparing texts in the ongoing Doha fisheries subsidies negotiations include Ms Katherine Dellar of Australia for overcapacity and overfishing, Mr Gustavo Cunha Machala of Brazil for overfished stocks, Ms Benedict Fleischer from Norway for IUU fishing, and Mr Faisal Saud Sulaiman al-Nabhani from Oman for cross-cutting issues. A trade envoy from a developing country who asked not to be quoted, commenting on the chair’s email, said that “the chair is insensitive to the specific problems being faced by the developing countries and is going against the statements made at the two General Council meetings (15 May and 29 May) by India, the coordinators of the African Group, the ACP (Africa, Caribbean, and Pacific) group and the LDCs (least-developed countries) that they are ready to exchange information but not enter into negotiations for finalizing binding commitments because of the rising Covid-19 pandemic.” Further, the chair had then promised that he would convene a meeting to discuss the responses from India and the LDC group on overfishing and overcapacity. Surprisingly, the chair has not held any meeting on his first draft on overfishing and overcapacity until now. The chair’s latest email does not indicate whether he will convene meetings on his first draft on overfishing and overcapacity issued more than three months ago. That draft was rejected by many developing countries because it did not include special and differential treatment commitments in all the three pillars, the trade envoy said. Consequently, there is confusion among developing countries whether the chair’s first draft on overfishing and overcapacity will be incorporated or new language will be proposed on this issue, said another trade envoy, who asked not to be quoted. Lastly, while countries respect the leaders’ commitment to arrive at an agreement based on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 14.6 by end-2020, Covid-19 has brought a new normal of uncertainty coupled with massive health and economic crisis. Forcing developing countries to enter into negotiations at this juncture is “inappropriate,” he added.
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