The EU today formally accepted the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies on behalf of its 27 Member States. The EU's acceptance brings the Agreement closer to entry into force and to delivering on Target 14.6 of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.
The Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies is crucial for ensuring that fisheries subsidies take sustainability as their core objective and avoid harming the ocean and fish stocks on which the livelihoods of coastal communities around the world depend.
Background
The Agreement will enter into force once two-thirds of the 164 WTO members have completed their domestic ratification processes. The EU's acceptance (counting for the 27 Member States) brings the number of WTO Members who had accepted the Agreement to 34.
The WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, the first multilateral trade agreement focussing on sustainability, was concluded at the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC12) in June 2022 and includes:
- a prohibition of government subsidies to illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing;
- a prohibition of subsidies for fishing on the unregulated high seas;
- a prohibition of subsidies regarding the most vulnerable stocks;
- provisions addressing the harmful practice of reflagging fishing vessels to other jurisdictions; and
- extensive transparency and notification provisions to monitor the implementation of the Agreement.
