ICTSD Project on Fisheries, International Trade and Sustainable Development

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Fish and fishery products have become the most important foreign exchange earners for many regions of the world. Not only do fish provide food, local livelihoods and trade opportunities in many developing countries, but they are also a critical part of these nations' economic development plans. However, market access barriers - in the form of tariff and non-tariff measures - continue to pose serious obstacles for developing countries to expand their participation in international trade, adding value to their exports and ensuring rural development. In addition, fisheries subsidies in industrialised countries have contributed to market distortions, reducing developing countries' ability to compete with subsidised fleets and often making it economically unviable for poor countries to build up their own fishing industries. Moreover, declining fish stocks, partly a result of overfishing - not least due to inappropriately designed subsidies schemes - and ineffective management, have reduced the availability of fish for domestic use and export.

In recognition of some of these concerns, WTO Members at the 2001 Ministerial Conference in Doha launched negotiations to improve WTO disciplines on fisheries subsidies, "taking into account the importance of this sector to developing countries". Under the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), market access and disciplines on fishery subsidies are discussed under the Doha multilateral round of trade negotiations. Fisheries and fish products are here treated as industrial products and discussed as part of negotiations on non-agricultural market access, where the objective of the Doha Round is to reduce and eliminate tariffs and non-tariff barriers.

Trade in fish and fish products is also governed by regional agreements such as the Cotonou Partnership Agreement (CPA) between the European Union (EU) and the group of African, Caribbean and Pacific nations (ACP). The CPA provides ACP countries with market-access to the EU on the basis of non-reciprocal trade preferences. The current non-reciprocal preferential trade relations under the CPA are due to be replaced by comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) by the end of 2007. Given the importance of fisheries in the relations between the EU and ACP countries, future changes to the trade regime that may result from the conclusion or non-conclusion of EPAs, and their likely impact on trade preferences, are of key importance to many ACP countries.

As negotiations pick up speed under the WTO and EPAs, a clear articulation of the sustainable development dimensions and how to integrate them into these negotiations remains a challenge. Disciplining fisheries subsidies at the WTO will be useful but insufficient to ensure that trade supports sustainability objectives. Thus, there is a need to take a more holistic approach to policy-making at the fisheries-trade interface. The myriad of intersections, however, remain poorly understood, hindering efforts to integrate the various factors into coherent policy frameworks at the national, regional and multilateral levels. These gaps are exacerbated by the limited capacities in many developing countries to effectively engage in negotiating processes and in coherent policy formulation at the domestic, regional and multilateral level.

To address these gaps, ICTSD's project on "Fisheries, International Trade and Sustainable Development" aims to contribute to the crafting of multilateral and regional trade rules and policies that are supportive of sustainable development in fisheries by generating knowledge and promoting inclusiveness in trade policy-making processes. More specifically, the project aims to:

The project is made possible through the generous support of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the New Zealand Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade.

For further information on the project, contact Moustapha Kamal Gueye, Senior Programme Manager - Environment Cluster, ICTSD, tel: +41 22 9178 754.

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