WTO: India resists plan to end fish sops in developing countries

India is pushing back a global plan to end subsidies to fisherfolk in developing countries, saying stopping the support will affect millions of poor fishermen and lead to increased poverty. At WTO's 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12), India said it is not a major fishery subsidy provider, unlike China, the US and EU, and that fishing by its people only involves short fishing trips, close to shore.

China, the EU and the US dole out $7.3 billion, $3.8 billion and $3.4 billion, respectively, annually as fishery subsidy while India provided only $277 million in 2018 to small fishers, it said.

"There is no industrial fishing in India. Industrial fishing by developed nations involves large fishing vessels which is conducted in high seas and up to 200 nautical miles from the coast which is detrimental to fish stock," one person aware of the negotiations told ET.


New Delhi has opposed the draft outcome text of WTO and suggested specific changes that will allow it to continue support for fishing and fishing-related activities within its exclusive economic zone (200 nautical miles from the coast).

The WTO's draft text has done away with India's proposals to put an end to non-specific fuel subsidies or those that are not targeted at a particular industry.

It also allows only a seven-year transition period for developing countries, as against India's proposal that developing countries not engaged in 'distant water fishing' should be exempt from overfishing subsidy prohibitions for 25 years.

Fishermen oppose draft
Indian marine fisher population is more than the total population of 112 countries, people in the know said. As per Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute Census 2016, total marine fisherfolk population in the country is 3.77 million, 900,000 families. And 67.3% of the fishermen families were below the poverty line.