A concerted international effort to clarify and tackle the harm caused by fishing
subsidies on the conservation of wild fish stocks worldwide is to be launched
following a seminar staged by the United Nations Environment Programme.
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Concerns were raised by participants, which included more than 60 national
governments, the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation, the World Trade Organisation,
UNCTAD, (the UN development agency), the International Labour Organisation and
the OECD.
A paper on the meeting released by the WTO said that these organisations agreed
to consider the creation of a ‘red list,’ banning certain subsidies, according
to the stocks that fishing businesses exploit and the way in which they are
paid, taking account of the linkage of catches to grants, for instance.
The participants also agreed that a matrix should be produced to categorise
subsidies regarding their effect on exhausting stocks and also that research
on the subject should be prioritised.
By Keith Nuthall, just-food.com correspondent
