Saving Seafood

New WTO chief pushes for vaccine access, fisheries deal

March 2, 2021 — The new head of the World Trade Organization called Monday for a “technology transfer” when it comes to COVID-19 vaccines and urged member nations to reach a deal to reduce overfishing after years of fruitless talks as she laid out her top priorities after taking office.

Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a Nigerian economist and former government minister, donned a mask and doled out welcoming elbow bumps as she took up her job at WTO headquarters on the banks of Lake Geneva. Still, she immediately set about trying to change the organization’s culture.

“It cannot be business as usual. We have to change our approach from debate and rounds of questions to delivering results,” she told ambassadors and other top government envoys that make up the 164-member body’s General Council.

“The world is leaving the WTO behind. Leaders and decision-makers are impatient for change,” she said, noting several trade ministers had told her that “if things don’t change,” they would not attend the WTO’s biggest event — a ministerial meeting — “because it is a waste of their time.”

Okonjo-Iweala, 66, is both the first woman and the first African to serve as the WTO’s director-general. Her brisk comments were a departure from the more cautious approach of her predecessor, Roberto Azevedo, who resigned on Aug. 31 — a year before the end of his term.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Boston Globe

China faces big decision on WTO reform deal

March 28, 2019 — The pressure is on this month as negotiators seek to find common ground and to advance the cause of a World Trade Organization agreement on fishery subsidies by the end of the year.

The WTO Director-General Roberto Azevêdo has said subsidies by member states for fuel have contributed to overfishing, and illegal and unregulated fishing. He called it “one of the important issues of our time.”

An estimated USD 20 billion (EUR 17.8 billion) is paid out annually to subsidize the cost of fuel that allows vessels to operate thousands of miles from home. The bulk of the subsidies are paid out by a handful of nations, and around 85 percent of the figure goes to large-scale industrial fleets, rather than smaller near-shore artisanal fisheries.

The pressure was ramped up in 2015 when all United Nations member states agreed Sustainable Development Goal 14.6 to eliminate or prohibit harmful fishery subsidies by 2020. The goal was a priority for developing countries depending on the sea for protein.

There are some reasons for optimism – the WTO director general told a WTO plenary in February that progress had been made in the negotiations among the technocrats. But he said now is time for high-level political commitment to get the deal done.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Domestic and global fishing issues take center stage

December 15, 2017 — The House Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday advanced out of committee revisions to the Magnuson-Stevens Act (H.R. 200 (115)) governing marine fishing and management in federal waters. The law is intended to prevent overfishing, but several conservation groups and Democrats are critical of the way it was written. Only three out of 12 amendments to the bill passed, and the bill moved out of committee on a party-line vote, your host reports.

What lawmakers said: Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), who voted against it, called it a plan to “deregulate our oceans and fish everywhere until there’s nothing left.” He added: “Like most of the bills advanced by the leadership of this committee, this bill is extreme and has no future in the Senate.” Many environmental groups also issued strongly worded statements condemning the bill.

GOP leaders, for their part, took issue with the idea that it was being rushed. “The idea we are jamming this through without ample opportunity is false,” said Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), who noted that he had been working on this legislation for the past five years. “I recognize this bill is not perfect yet.”

What about fishing criminals? After it was clear it wouldn’t pass, Grijalva pulled back his amendment to address repeat offenders in the fisheries industry — such as Carlos “the Codfather” Rafael who last month started serving a federal prison sentence for violating federal fishing regulations. Although Young did not support this specific amendment, he and other committee members said they would work with Grijalva to revisit the issue.

Read the full story at Politico