This webinar explores the state of play and key remaining questions in World Trade Organization negotiations on fisheries subsidies.

This series of two webinars explores WTO negotiations on fisheries subsidies and the Chair's draft consolidated text.

This event is part of IISD's participation in the 2021 WTO Public Forum.

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To support the ongoing WTO fisheries subsidies negotiations, IISD will hold an online session for WTO negotiators to discuss the current state of play in the process.

On May 6 and 8 2020, the International Institute for Sustainable Development organized two webinars sessions summarizing the state of play and the key issues to be resolved across the WTO fisheries subsidies negotiations.

The WTO negotiations on fisheries subsidies will enter an intensive phase in autumn 2020 as negotiators try to reach an agreement by the end of the year, in keeping with the SDG Target 14.6 deadline. Experience has shown, most recently in the context of the Trade Facilitation Agreement, that the timely and flexible provision of technical assistance in support of the implementation of agreed rules is key to generating greater buy-in and raising comfort levels among signatories, particularly those with weaker resources.

The International Institute for Sustainable Development organized two virtual refresher sessions on the World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations on fisheries subsidies, on 7 and 9 September 2020.

This webinar will discuss the importance of a meaningful WTO deal addressing harmful fisheries subsidies and highlight political challenges that leaders will need to overcome to deliver for people and the planet. 

This webinar will explore strategies and options that WTO members could use to reform fisheries subsides.

This informal dialogue will give WTO Members the opportunity to discuss two important new sources of data to help inform negotiations on fisheries subsidies at the WTO.

This informal dialogue will provide developing WTO Member negotiators, international agencies and civil society actors with an opportunity to discuss the possibilities for support to implementation of an agreement on fisheries subsidies. 

This informal dialogue will explore some of the key questions related to the structure and institutional aspects of possible new WTO disciplines on fisheries subsidies. The first session will explore how transparency and review provisions could be crafted to support effective implementation of the agreement.  The second session will consider how the different parts of a possible agreement might fit together.

 

Agenda

15:00 - 15:15              Opening remarks

This informal dialogue will set out the various questions that have arisen in the WTO fisheries subsidies negotiations.

This informal dialogue will explore some of the open questions surrounding the interaction between the law of the sea and new rules on fisheries subsidies. It will look specifically at how different states’ responsibilities under the law of the sea interact. It will also benefit from perspectives from legal and marine surveillance practitioners on some of the practical aspects of implementation of a new IUU subsidy discipline. 

AGENDA

The overarching objective of this regional workshop organised by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and the Pew Charitable Trusts is to support Pacific Island WTO members as they seek to successfully negotiate new rules to discipline harmful fisheries subsidies at the World Trade Organization (WTO).

This lunchtime seminar will provide negotiators with perspectives on the potential impact of new rules on fisheries subsidies through the presentation of preliminary findings from case studies of three fisheries around the world.

A Lunchtime seminar, designed to provide negotiators working on the WTO fisheries subsidies agreement with expert perspectives on possible approaches to the implementation of an eventual outcome, drawing on the options for rules currently under discussion.