The
Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies (AFS) was concluded by the Ministerial
Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in June 2022. It was
negotiated following the mandate contained in the Sustainable Development Goal
(SDG) 14.6 adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015. In the AFS,
WTO Members were able to agree on subsidy prohibitions relating to illegal,
unreported, and unregulated fishing, overfished stocks and unregulated waters.
However, the AFS fails to address part of the SDG 14.6 mandate concerning
subsidies contributing to overcapacity and overfishing. For this reason, WTO
Members have, shortly after the conclusion of the AFS, engaged in a second wave
of negotiations to address the missing elements in SDG 14.6, as well as other provisions
left out of the AFS. At the time of writing, the WTO Negotiating Group on Rules
has produced a draft text containing the proposals of Members on overcapacity
and overfishing, including a sustainability carve-out and special and differential
treatment for developing countries. In addition, this text includes a subsidy
prohibition with respect to subsidies contingent upon or tied to fishing and
fishing related activities in waters outside the subsidizing Member’s jurisdiction and a notification obligation concerning the
use of forced labour. The challenge is, therefore, to produce a text that is
agreeable to both the representatives of Members sitting at the WTO Ministerial
Conference and the stakeholders of each WTO Member who will decide,
domestically, whether to ratify the agreement.