Overview
- India, which stated its position Saturday at the WTO’s MC14 in Yaoundé, backed adoption of the chair’s draft to keep negotiations on tougher fisheries-subsidy rules moving.
- Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said the sector supports more than 9 million livelihoods, so any deal must include special treatment for developing countries and shield vulnerable communities.
- He argued that overfishing stems from heavily subsidized industrial fleets, not from India’s mostly small, artisanal fishers who follow seasonal bans.
- The WTO draft remains under the chair and is not adopted, and it instructs members to keep working toward recommendations for the Fifteenth Ministerial Conference.
- The talks build on a 2022 agreement that banned subsidies linked to illegal fishing and overfished stocks, and reporting notes larger subsidy providers include China, the European Union, and the United States.