The World Trade Organization (WTO) has been trying for months to secure a deal to ban harmful fishery subsidies leading to overfishing and overcapacity in global fishing fleets.
Negotiations have all failed so far, and future attempts to pass the deal are looking bleak, according to European Center for International Political Economy (ECIPE) Director and Hosuk Lee-Makiyama, who told SeafoodSource that key WTO members like India have dug in on their opposition.
Indian officials have stated that their opposition, which has drawn criticism from other WTO members like the E.U., is mainly based on the fact that countries with large fleets, like China, are primarily responsible for overfishing across the globe and that a deal in its current form would just hurt India’s artisanal fishing fleet, which do not contribute to overfishing.
Lee-Makiyama, who has written books on such trade topics as WTO relations, said he also suspects India’s unwillingness to sign on to a deal may be linked to a similar refusal to agree to WTO limits on subsidies paid to the agricultural sector.
“India guards its policy space on agricultural subsidies vigilantly,” he said. “Many forget that India is a state-managed mixed economy and that 20,000 farmers sieged the capital in violent protests even at the peak of the pandemic. Farmer policies in India are not for the faint-hearted.”
India Minister of Trade Piyush Goyal …
