Key subject of this agreement: the removal of subsidies that facilitate illegal fishing and the disappearance of overexploited species. After more than 20 years of negotiations, the 164 countries have finally reached this agreement for the sustainability of fishing, despite strong Indian reluctance. According to a study regularly cited by experts, global fisheries subsidies amounted to $35.4 billion in 2018 – more than 80% of which went to the industrial fishing sector –
Developing countries benefit from a two-year derogation in their exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The WTO also wants to set up a fund to help fishermen in these countries switch to more sustainable fishing.
The text makes “a first but important step forward to reduce subsidies to overcapacity and overfishing by ending subsidies to unregulated fishing on the high seas”, underlined the director general of the WTO, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala,
“the limits of the agreement”, the NGO Bloom sees to it “a historic first step for the ocean”
Another major subject discussed: the lifting for five years of patents that protect anti-Covid vaccines. This subject has been the subject of bitter battles between the pharmaceutical lobby, developing countries and numerous NGOs. After two and a half years of fighting the Pandemic of Covid-19, the member states have managed to agree more generally on the facilitation of the trade of medical goods necessary to the fight against pandemics.