The government has moved to reassure fishers that the World Trade Organisation’s new Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies (FSA) will not touch existing domestic support schemes, despite the global push to curb harmful payments to the industry.
The agreement, which entered into force on Monday—three years after its adoption—aims to protect fisheries by curbing overfishing and unregulated fishing through limiting billions of dollars in annual spending on the most harmful subsidies that contribute to the depletion of marine fish stocks.
Speaking to Barbados TODAY, Minister of Blue Economy Adrian Forde welcomed the arrangement, stressing it “will not affect the subsidies in our local fisheries sector. So, the playing field remains basically the same as it relates to how we are able to treat the subsidies with our local fisherfolk”.
He explained: “The agreement really speaks to the entire planet protecting our maritime space, and being able to mitigate and adapt to the vagaries of climate that has been very bipolar within the last couple of years. It is for us all to welcome an agreement that speaks to the whole conservation efforts across the world—how we will protect our fisheries sector, how we will manage our resources, including our biodiversity and our natural resources, to ensure they are kept in a sustainable way and that there is no further damage to that marine ecosystem. So, it basically targets those illegal, unregulated, and unreported fisheries that have been creating problems in the international sphere.”
The FSA includes allowances for small island developing states (SIDS) and other developing countries by recognising their specific needs, providing a fund for technical assistance and capacity-building, and explicitly including language on special and differential treatment in the mandate to address livelihoods, poverty alleviation, and food security.
Barbados and other small island nations have been considered instrumental in ensuring the agreement addressed these broader social and developmental aspects, not just trade rules.
Developing countries are also allowed under the agreement to provide or continue subsidies that support small-scale, low-income fishers. This applies to fishing activities within their own Exclusive Economic Zones, especially in waters close to shore—up to 12 nautical miles from the coastline or island baselines. (JB)
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