THE PHILIPPINES should be wary of proposals exempting poor countries from cutting their fishery subsidies at the ongoing World Trade Organization (WTO) talks if it wants to secure global stocks, international advocacy group Oceana said last week.
Draft deals separately submitted by Japan and Canada, while kind to developing WTO members, could allow emerging economies to overexploit seas shared with Filipino fishermen, the group warned.
"The Philippines is sort of in the middle of the debate," Peter Allgeier, Oceana advisor and former United States ambassador to the WTO, told BusinessWorld at the close of two weeks of talks held in line with revived efforts to conclude the multi-issue Doha round.
Members agreed back in 2005 that cuts to government funding for fishing would be part of the global trade deal, with nearly 80% of world fish stocks nearly depleted based on Food and Agriculture Organization estimates.
Manila has aligned itself with an informal grouping dubbed "Friends of Fish" which argues that subsidies are partly to blame, but has also raised issue over the need to continue supporting its small scale fishermen.
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