Vietnam participates in WTO negotiations on fisheries subsidies

Ambassador Le Thi Tuyet Mai, head of the Vietnamese Permanent Mission to the United Nations (UN), World Trade Organisation (WTO), and other international organisations in Geneva

The Vietnamese delegation’s participation in these discussions was done with the aim of reaching a consensus and accelerating negotiations aimed at achieving swift and satisfactory solutions for all parties to meet the sustainable development goal (SDG) 14.6 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the UN.

During the course of the meeting, Ambassador Santiago Wills of Colombia, chair of the WTO negotiating group, briefed the various heads of the delegation to the WTO and other participants on the work that has been done since January.

Ambassador Wills reiterated that WTO members should begin to express their views on an acceptable outcome which can lead to the successful conclusion of negotiations, with the main goal to protect aquatic resources worldwide.

Many statements delivered throughout the meeting noted the differences of opinions on the three issues discussed in the latest negotiation round, while proposing that many different forms of negotiation be used to try and find solutions as a means of narrowing the differences.

A number of members welcomed calls made by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the new WTO director-general, on February 15 that set out an introduction to the WTO’s new rules regarding fisheries subsidies in the year ahead.

The next round of negotiations on fisheries subsidies is set to start on March 15. WTO members can also conduct consultations ahead of the next round of negotiations.

The WTO’s 11th Ministerial Conference (MC11) and SDG 14.6 gave negotiators the task of securing an agreement to end subsidies for illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, and which ban certain forms of fisheries subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and overfishing by the end of the year. WTO members have also fully committed to building on their progress from last year and reaching a resolution in the year ahead.

SDG 14.6, part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by all UN member states, including Vietnam, in 2015, affirms the WTO's role in the agenda of global fisheries subsidies.

It sets out, “by 2020, to prohibit certain forms of fisheries subsidies which contribute to overcapacity and overfishing, and to eliminate subsidies that contribute to IUU fishing, and refrain from introducing new such subsidies, recognising that appropriate and effective special and differential treatment for developing and least developed countries should be an integral part of the WTO fisheries subsidies negotiation.”