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Geneva (Switzerland): As India’s key demand for a long-term protection of subsidies for its fishers remained unaddressed under the latest draft agreement text on curbing fisheries subsidies at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), India’s ambassador Brajendra Navnit assured that India will not bend on its demands.
Speaking ahead of the crucial 12th ministerial conference beginning in Geneva on Sunday, Navnit said that during the negotiations, India will ensure that the support to its traditional fishermen is not stopped or impacted.
India is seeking a 25-year exemption from the proposed overfishing subsidy prohibitions as against seven years mentioned in the draft text, with the sector in India still at a nascent stage.
The Fisheries Subsidies proposal at the WTO aims to eliminate subsidies that contribute to overfishing, curb support for illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing and promote sustainable fishing.
“We will ensure that none of the subsidies for the traditional fishermen will get stopped or impacted. India is committed to it, and we will not bend on that…Countries like India cannot be expected to sacrifice their future policy space because some members provided considerable subsidies to overexploit fisheries resources and are able to continue to engage in unsustainable fishing," said Navnit.
He added that India needs Special and Differential Treatment to protect the livelihoods of poor fishers and address food security concerns of a nation. “We need to have the necessary policy space for developing the fisheries sector, and sufficient time to put in place systems to implement the disciplines under Over Capacity and Over Fishing, Illegal, Unreported Unregulated and Over Fished," he said.
India believes that the fisheries agreement has to be seen in the context of existing international instruments and the laws of the sea. The sovereign rights of coastal States to explore and manage the living resources within their maritime jurisdiction, enshrined in international instruments, must be protected.
As per the latest draft text, developing countries will need to do away with subsidies that contribute to overfishing within seven years of the agreement coming into effect, or upto 2030. These subsidies include the ones given to construction, acquisition, modernisation or upgrading of vessels, besides those given to purchase of machines and equipment for vessels, including fishing gear and engine, refrigerators, and towards insurance and social charges.
India is seeking a 25 years transition period as the sector still requires support with livelihoods of various low-income fishers depending on that.
“We should get a longer transition period so that we can strengthen the future of our fishermen. India is not the country which is responsible for this problem. We do fishing in a sustainable way. We will protect our traditional fishermen," said Navnit. He added that India will agree to the proposed agreement only if it is balanced and does not put developing countries in a disadvantageous position.
Meanwhile, the draft text aims to give protection for non-specific fuel subsidies, mostly given by the developed countries.
The proposal agreement also aims to do away with subsidies contributing to illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, and overfished stocks giving a leeway of two years for developing countries for their low income, resource poor fishers up to an area of 12 nautical miles. India is pressing for at least seven years for this transition and exemption for an area of up to 200 nautical miles.
According to the National Fishworkers Forum, a trade Union representing thousands of fishers, argued that negotiations ignore that many developing countries such as India have large fishing populations and give very small subsidies per fisher. It pointed out that India has about 97.9 lakh fishers accounting for 26% of global fisher population. India gives only $141 million as total subsidies to the sector, which means the subsidy is only $14.50 per fisher.