“The pressure really is building with the Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) just around the corner and MC13 shortly after that. How you engage this week will set the tone for the rest of this intense period coming up,” DG Okonjo-Iweala said, adding that the SOM will gather political guidance in respect of the various streams of ongoing work at the WTO. “I have noted your continued and unwavering commitment to deliver us an outcome at MC13. This shared spirit makes me optimistic about our chances for success.”
DG Okonjo-Iweala further said: “WTO ministers made history last year at MC12 by agreeing to adopt the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, but the last chapter of that story still needs to be written. You are the ones holding the pen for the further disciplines, and I can only urge you to keep working. We will keep you well supplied with ink, in the form of unflagging support from the Secretariat.”
Ambassador Gunnarsson reminded members that the focus of discussions this week will be to hear members’ specific suggestions for amendments to the draft text that he circulated last month as the starting point for the text-based negotiations.
“I can tell you we are really turning up the heat,” the chair said, noting that arrangements have been made to extend into evening sessions this week if necessary. “Our main objective is to complete a full read-through of the text, collecting specific suggested amendments as we go through the Agreement provision by provision.”
DG Okonjo-Iweala also took the opportunity to remind members to use the upcoming Senior Officials Meeting as an occasion to deposit their instruments of acceptance of the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, which members adopted in the first wave of negotiations at MC12. The Agreement will enter into force upon acceptance of its legal instrument by two-thirds of the membership. To date, 43 acceptances have been received from members.
At the 12th Ministerial Conference, held on 12-17 June 2022 in Geneva, WTO members forged an historic Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies. The Agreement prohibits support for illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing; bans support for fishing overfished stocks; and ends subsidies for fishing on the unregulated high seas. Under the Agreement, members further agreed to continue negotiations on outstanding issues, particularly on subsidies contributing to overcapacity and overfishing, which is the focus of the current draft text before members during the ongoing second wave of negotiations.
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