Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Archives

Explainer: What’s Included in the WTO’s Fishing Subsidies Agreement?

June 30, 2022 — It has taken more than 20 years, but government representatives at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva have finally agreed on a deal to curb the harmful subsidies that are compromising fish populations and damaging the marine environment.

It is the first time the WTO’s 164 members have made a deal with “environmental sustainability at its heart,” said the WTO director-general, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, in her closing speech. “This is also about the livelihoods of the 260 million people who depend directly or indirectly on marine fisheries,” she added.

The agreement bans subsidies for vessels and operators engaged in illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, and puts curbs on funding that supports the exploitation of overfished stocks. It also prohibits subsidies for fishing on the high seas – areas beyond national waters – if operations fall outside the jurisdiction of a regional fisheries management organisation (RFMO).

Read the full story at The Maritime Executive

WTO agrees deals on Covid vaccines and overfishing

June 20, 2022 — The group of 164 countries spent five days negotiating deals which included pledges on health and food security.

The partial intellectual property waiver deal for coronavirus jabs will allow developing countries to produce and export vaccines.

But it will only last five years, and excludes disease treatments and tests.

Director-general of the WTO Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said the agreements, reached at a conference in Geneva, would “make a difference to the lives of people around the world”.

“The outcomes demonstrate that the WTO is in fact capable of responding to emergencies of our time,” she added.

The package of the two highest profile deals on the table – aimed at reducing overfishing and sharing Covid vaccine knowledge – was described as “unprecedented” by Ms Okonjo-Iweala.

Read the full story at BBC News

Impact of draft WTO deal minimal for fish stocks, study finds

July 20, 2021 — Following the passing of a 15 July deadline for World Trade Organization member-states to achieve an agreement on ending harmful fishing subsidies, the WTO head and The Pew Charitable Trusts are criticizing negotiators for failing to put aside national interests to strike a deal that would benefit the world’s oceans and marine life.

The world’s largest fishing nations are dodging their responsibilities, according to Isabel Jarrett, manager of The Pew Charitable Trusts’ project to end harmful fisheries subsidies.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Depleted Global Fish Stocks May Get Boost From WTO

July 15, 2021 — World Trade Organization members are working to conclude negotiations that could stabilize wild fish populations—and help new Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala restore the WTO’s credibility.

The talks target government subsidies that the trade organization says help drive “illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing” that contributes to overfishing and the depletion of fish stocks. If the negotiations are successful, they would result in the first multilateral trade agreement for the 164-member group since 2013. Many say it would be the most significant pact since the WTO was established in 1995.

Member nations have been squabbling for years over how to stop overfishing. Ms. Okonjo-Iweala, who took office in March, is pressing them to compromise, and business and environmental groups are optimistic her approach will lead to a resolution.

“There is not going to be a better moment to deliver on this mandate,“ says Isabel Jarrett, a fisheries expert at Pew Charitable Trusts. “This is important to Dr. Ngozi to show that in her first year, she can deliver an outcome of global importance.”

Global annual fish consumption is expected to grow 16.3% between 2020 and 2029, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, pressuring wild fish populations.

Read the full story at The Wall Street Journal

No deal at WTO on fishery subsidies, negotiations pushed to September

July 13, 2021 — Hope for a deal on curbing harmful fishing subsidies has faded after the World Trade Organization pushed back its deadline for a deal until September 2021.

WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala had set a deadline of 15 July for achieving an agreement, but that date will now a virtual meeting of ministers to “advance negotiations” on curbing harmful fisheries subsidies, according to a WTO notice.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

EU fuel fight ignites as WTO subsidies negotiations enter final week

July 12, 2021 — Daniel Voces, the managing director of the European Union’s primary fishing industry advocacy group, Europêche, believes members of the World Trade Organization will reach a deal on curbing illegal fishing subsidies this week.

WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has pleaded with negotiators in Geneva, Switzerland, to come to an agreement before the deadline for negotiations arrives on 15 July. Negotiators are currently considering a draft version of an accord, but differences remain due to sparring over exemptions for developing nations as well as fuel subsidy definitions and enforcement mechanisms.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Explainer: What’s at stake in WTO talks on fishing rules?

July 8, 2021 — The World Trade Organization hosts talks next week aimed at reaching a deal to cap subsidies that contribute to the overfishing of the world’s seas and oceans.

Prospects for a breakthrough appear dim. WTO delegates have been negotiating for 20 years and only last December agreed on the definition of “fish”.

The WTO’s new director general, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has said a deal is a top priority but she has also expressed doubts about a July conclusion.

Read the full story at Reuters

U.S. Asks WTO to Address Forced Labor on Fishing Vessels

May 27, 2021 — The U.S. asked the World Trade Organization’s members to address the problem of forced labor on fishing vessels, seeking the issue to form part of ongoing talks to curb subsidies in the industry.

The U.S. proposal also calls for WTO members’ explicit recognition of the forced-labor problem and proposes additional transparency with respect to those vessels or operators that use forced labor, the U.S. Trade Representative said in a statement Wednesday.

“Forced labor harms the lives and well-being of fishers and workers around the world and it must be eliminated,” U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said in the statement.

Global leaders in 2015 tasked the WTO with ending excessive and illegal fishing through eliminating government subsidies that spur companies to deplete the world’s fish stocks and threaten coastal economies. Negotiators have failed to reach an agreement.

WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has made the issue her top priority, and plans a July conference that could help seal an international accord.

Read the full story at Bloomberg

WTO DG fixes July ministerial meeting on over-fishing rules

May 11, 2021 — The head of the World Trade Organization plans to host a ministerial meeting on July 15 where she hopes an agreement can be reached on cutting fisheries subsidies after 20 years of talks, a document showed on Monday.

Governments including major subsidisers China, the European Union and Japan spend billions of dollars a year to prop up their fishing fleets, contributing to over-fishing that is decimating wild stocks. The WTO was tasked by world leaders in 2015 with striking a deal to roll them back but missed a key deadline last year. read more

Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who took charge of the global trade watchdog in March, has made fisheries a top priority and urged ministers in an invitation letter seen by Reuters “to find the common resolve and spirit of compromise that the WTO needs to bring these twenty-year-plus negotiations to a successful conclusion at this meeting”.

Intensive negotiations will continue in Geneva with the chair of the talks, Santiago Wills, expected to issue a fourth version of the draft agreement this week.

Read the full story at Reuters

WTO Chief Sees Fisheries Deal as Key to ‘Watershed’ Year

April 28, 2021 — The world’s most important trade negotiation this year centers on a deal aimed at saving the world’s fisheries.

Back in 2015, global leaders tasked the World Trade Organization with ending excessive and illegal fishing. The idea was to eliminate government subsidies that incentivize companies to deplete the world’s fish stocks and threaten coastal economies.

But year after year, deadline after broken deadline, WTO negotiators failed to secure such an agreement.

This year it sounds different.

“It’s like a watershed year — we have to deliver some successes,” WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said Monday at a European Commission trade conference. She then recited her 2021 agenda with a fisheries deal atop the list.

A failure to conclude a fisheries deal would show that the WTO lacks credibility and is incapable tackling the more pressing problems of the modern global trading system. Okonjo-Iweala sees it as a way to signal to the world that the WTO is back.

There’s one big problem.

China, India and other developing nations are more focused on carving out exemptions than agreeing to enforceable disciplines that would help foster the sustainability of the world’s fish stocks.

Read the full story at Bloomberg