- Fisheries subsidies – The path toward a sustainable global agreement

​With the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, Heads of State have signed on to the goal of prohibiting subsidies that contribute to overfishing, and to illegal and unregulated fishing by 2020.

Such fisheries subsidy forecasts amount between US$ 10 to US$ 20 billion contributing to natural resource declines, as well as to ecosystem deterioration, unemployment, poverty and food insecurity. In addition, they create distortions in international markets and may contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.

91 countries, 4 Intergovernmental Organizations and more than 15 Civil Society Organizations backed the joint UNCTAD, FAO and UN Environment initiative (at the UNCTAD 14 Conference in Nairobi, July 2016)  effectively signing onto a roadmap to end such harmful and distortive fisheries subsidies and move toward a sustainable trading path.

This session aims to gather actors to discuss next steps for accelerating the removal of harmful fisheries subsidies and for converging on a global agreement. It will also seek to encourage the deposit of voluntary commitments by Member States to reform and ultimately phase-out harmful fishery subsidies.

The objective is to build on the momentum created by the joint declaration and focus on scaling the delivery of the four-point action plan toward a call for a binding global agreement on fisheries subsidies at 17th WTO Ministerial Conference.

Moderator: Guillermo Valles, Former Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister, Uruguay and DITC Director, UNCTAD

Speakers:

• UN Joint Agency Heads
• José Graziano da Silva, Director-General, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
• Mukhisa Kituyi, Secretary-General, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
• Erik Solheim, Executive Director, United Nations Environment

Commentary by the WTO

• Roberto Azevedo, Director-General World Trade Organisation

SIGNATORY GOVERNMENTS:

Suggested speakers from countries that backed 2016 pledge) (3-5 out of the following):

Small Island Developing State

• Hon. Minister Marie Joseph Noël Etienne Ghislain Sinatambou, Minister of Environment, Sustainable Development, Republic of Mauritius
• Hon. Minister Seetanah Lutchmeenaraidoo, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade, Republic of Mauritius
• The Honourable Donville O. Inniss, Minister of Industry, International Business, Commerce and Small Business Development, Barbados
• Dr. Hon. Dr. Denis Lowe M.P., Minister of the Environment and Drainage, Barbados

Top Fish Exporting Country Ministers

• Pablo Badenier, Minister of the Environment, Republic of Chile
• Heraldo Muñoz Valenzuela, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Chile
• Murray McCully, Minister of Foreign Affairs & Trade, New Zealand
• Nick Smith, Minister of Environment, New Zealand
• Björt Ólafsdóttir, Minister for the Environment and Natural Resources, Iceland
• Gudlaugur Thór Thórdarson, Minister for Foreign Affairs (covers trade portfolio), Iceland
• Per Sandberg, Minister of Fisheries, Norway