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TWN Info Service
on WTO and Trade Issues (Jul21/03) New draft fisheries
text remains inimical to interests of Global South Geneva, 1 Jul (D. Ravi Kanth) - The chair of the Doha Rules negotiations, Ambassador Santiago Wills from Colombia, on 30 June issued a revised draft text on fisheries subsidies with "modest" changes under his own responsibility as the basis for negotiations at the upcoming ministerial meeting on 15 July, in what the WTO Director-General reckons that positions are "far apart" but "they are close," said people who participated in the meeting. However, the new text continues to be tilted against the interests of developing and least-developed countries with curtailed special and differential treatment (S&DT), which appears to be inconsistent with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 14.6, said people, who preferred not to be quoted. According to the UN SDG 14.6, WTO members are required, 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 countries and least developed countries should be an integral part of the WTO fisheries subsidies negotiation". The new text has given a short shrift to the UN SDG 14.6 as well as the Buenos Aires ministerial mandate, said people, arguing that it has provided reverse special and differential treatment to the 10 big subsidizers that include the European Union and the United States to continue with their harmful subsidies in the overcapacity and overfishing pillar, said people, who asked not to be quoted. In utter disregard of the proposal on special and differential treatment by the ACP (Africa, Caribbean, and Pacific) group and the African Group, the chair merely continued with his old formulations that would severely restrict S&DT for developing and least-developed countries, said people, who asked not to be quoted. At an informal heads of delegation meeting on 30 June, the chair as well as the WTO DG, Ms Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala, touted the revised draft consolidated text in TN/RL/W/276/Rev.1 as it contains only "modest" changes from the one that was last issued on 11 May. The new text, according to the DG, reflects the chair's "best judgement." In his remarks at the meeting, the chair said that "the draft text is not a simple copy-and-paste compilation of everything we have discussed", adding that "of course, what is not reflected in the draft text has not been disregarded or put aside." He maintained that members "had fruitful discussions on several new proposals when we met a couple of weeks ago." The new proposals include (1) on capping from Brazil, (2) on dispute settlement from Chinese Taipei, (3) on special and differential treatment from the ACP and African Group, and (4) on forced labour in the fisheries sector from the United States. The chair said the negotiating group has also received many more written proposals from India, Sri Lanka, and Chinese Taipei, and textual suggestions made during meetings, including a draft Ministerial Declaration. Obviously, the chair said, "they cannot all be just copied and pasted into the revised text, and we have yet to complete our discussions or crystallize our thinking on these proposals and the issues they raise, so we will need to continue these discussions as we move forward." Ambassador Wills said "this revised text is without prejudice to any Member's positions or views. This means that, like all of the earlier texts, the entire document should be treated as being in square brackets; nothing being agreed until everything is." He also provided a 17-page note explaining all the features of the text. PRELIMINARY REMARKS However, the text appears to be tilted against the interests of developing countries, who have not created the problem of overcapacity and overfishing, nor the depletion of global fish stocks, said people, who preferred not to be quoted. Further, the new text is apparently not in accordance with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 14.6 that stipulates appropriate and effective S&DT, nor the harmful subsidies that have to be prohibited, the person said. There are several controversial issues in the chair's draft text that may not be acceptable to the developing countries (in Article 5.5), China (Article 5.2) , the EU (Article 5.3), and even the US and the EU on fuel subsidies (in Article 1.2 on the scope), said another person, who asked not to be quoted. In many ways, the chair's language on several provisions in the text have created asymmetries in the proposed disciplines, the person said, adding that there is little prospect for any convergence at the ministerial meeting on 15 July. The full 8-page text can be accessed on the WTO website at: https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news21_e/fish_30jun21_e.htm
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