Environmentalists see cause to cheer from dismal WTO texts

The head of the World Trade Organization has acknowledged that the 10-year-old Doha round of trade talks is on its last legs, but environmentalist are seeing a glimmer of hope that the world will agree to curtail overfishing.

While a comprehensive Doha agreement, lowering tariffs and boosting world GDP, may never emerge, a more limited agreement to end fishing subsidies may be broken out. The agreement could ban the subsidies under WTO rules.

Environmentalists say the subsidies encourage overfishing and are destroying world's fish stocks.

One of the April 21 Doha texts states “all recognize that [overfishing] is a crisis of exceptionally serious implications for all humankind, and particularly for the poor in many countries who are heavily dependent on fisheries as a source of nutrition and employment.”

The chairman of the WTO’s Negotiating Group on Rules, Ambassador Dennis Francis of Trinidad and Tobago vowed to press on to an agreement on the fishing subsidies.

“This WTO report is a stark wake-up call for anyone who cares about the future of our oceans and our fishing communities,” said WWF Senior Fellow David Schorr. “Governments have the power to stop using taxpayer money to promote fisheries depletion, so they need to act now to enact strong WTO rules to eliminate harmful fisheries subsidies.”

Oceana’s senior campaign director, Courtney Sakai, said “the fisheries subsidies negotiations is the ‘good news’ of the WTO and must not be forgotten. In contrast to the recent drama by a few countries over narrow issues, a look inside the WTO will find it capable of producing a solution to one of the world’s greatest environmental challenges.

On Thursday, WTO Director General Pascal Lamy warned that differences between developed countries and developing countries on tariffs for industrial goods are not bridgeable and put the round at serious risk of failure.