WTO members talks about fishing subsidy

WTO members launched the fishing subsidy talks 20 years ago at their Fourth Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar. World leaders incorporated the negotiations into the U.N. Sustainable Developments Goals in 2015, calling for a deal by the end of the 2020 that included the WTO’s usual “special and differential treatment” for developing countries. However, negotiators failed to reach a deal last year in the midst of the pandemic.
India provided a relatively modest $174 million in harmful fishing subsidies in 2018 but has pushed for a provision that would exempt low-income countries from making any cuts. “They want to have an exception for 25 years, which is not acceptable,” Bernd Lange, chair of the European Parliament’s International Trade Committee, told reporters last week.