Europêche has given full support to an ambitious World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreement which aims to abolish fishery subsidies which the trade body says are contributing to overcapacity and overfishing.
As part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals agenda, the (WTO) has been given a prominent role to regulate and discipline global fisheries subsidies with the main goal being to eliminate illegal, unregulated and unreported subsidies by 2020.
Daniel Voces, managing director of Europêche, said, “While EU funding policies are strongly oriented towards sustainable fisheries, reduction of CO2 emissions, adjustment of fishing capacity, control and data collection programmes, Asian countries are using the money to exponentially increase their fleets and subsidise their running costs”.
At a recent high-level event on trade, climate change and oceans economy which took place in Geneva, a consensus was reached whereby no government shall grant or maintain any subsidy to vessels and operators engaged in IUU fishing. Europêche also called for the elimination of subsidies that negatively affect overfished stocks, stating that the removal of capacity-enhancing subsidies will not reach WTO goals unless accompanied by sustainable fisheries management, transparency, accountability and enforcement.
“Financial support is fundamental to improve safety at sea, working conditions, energy efficiency, and the competitiveness of our responsible fishermen who daily supply healthy seafood to a growing world-population," concluded Mr Voces.
