The WTO's agreement on Fisheries Subsidies: it's good but it's not quite right

After much anticipation, members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) have reached an historic Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies that seeks to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals. In this blog post, we provide a rapid assessment of this development, after reflecting on the state of global fisheries and key facts about fisheries subsidies. We then examine key provisions of the Agreement and how they relate to ongoing research at the One Ocean Hub. While our summary is not an exhaustive account of the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, we pay particular attention to its prohibition of subsidies to 1) illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing; 2) the fishing of overexploited stocks and 3) fisheries on the high seas outwith the control of regional fisheries management organisations. We also draw attention to the Agreement’s provisions on special and differential treatment in favour of developing and least-developed countries as well as certain procedural and institutional features of note. We conclude by highlighting remaining issues still to be addressed at the WTO.