Delhi moves to ratify WTO fish pact, seeks cushion for developing nations

India is in the process of ratifying the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, it has told the multilateral trade watchdog.

It has also called for stricter rules for countries that have historically been giving high fish subsidies while ensuring policy space for those who have not contributed to over-exploitation.

At the WTO's Special General Council meeting last week, New Delhi also insisted on "precise and effective" special and differential treatment, which allows developing and less developed countries (LDC) certain benefits, including longer time periods to implement agreements and binding commitments, and measures to increase trading opportunities for them.

With the entry into force of the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, New Delhi insisted on a balanced and comprehensive agreement on disciplines that serves sustainability and stricter rules for historical subsidisers.

The agreement put into place binding rules to curb harmful subsidies and prohibits subsidies for illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, for fishing overfished stocks and for fishing on the unregulated high seas."This requires... policy space for those who have not contributed to over-exploitation but are working towards sustainability," India told the WTO as the agreement came into force after it was ratified by 111 WTO members.

New Delhi's statement comes amid the WTO members working on Fish 2 or "second wave" to curb subsidies that lead to overfishing and overcapacity. India wants the subsidies to be on a per capita basis instead of the aggregate level of subsidisation and based on the S&DT principle to safeguard the livelihood of its small and artisanal fishers, a demand that has been supported by around 50 developing and LDC including Tunisia, Senegal, Bangladesh and Morocco.

It also wants 25 years exemption from any subsidy cuts to protect its poor fishers while the developed nations insist on a five-seven year transition period.

Flagging the disparity between the high fisheries subsidies of $76,000 per fisher per year given by developed countries and $35 that India gives, the government has said that stricter disciplines should not be based on the total value of subsidies given by a country but on the intensity of subsidies provided. It emphasised that disciplines for distant water fishing should be based on the 'common but dierentiated responsibilities-respective capabilities' principle.