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WTO Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and EU representative, Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis meeting in Davos last week
The European Union has pledged €1 million for the Fisheries Funding Mechanism which forms part of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies reached last year.
Established in November 2022, this new Fisheries Funding Mechanism aims to support sustainability in fisheries and eliminate harmful fisheries subsidies. It will provide grants to developing and least developed countries so they can benefit from technical assistance and capacity-building to implement the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies.
These grants will complement and leverage other existing assistance available for sustainable fisheries. The announcement was made by Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis in Davos, at the occasion of his meeting with WTO Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
The WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies reached at the WTO’s 12th Ministerial Conference on June 2022 delivered meaningful new rules which clamp down on subsidies that lead to over-fishing. It is the WTO’s first multilateral agreement to support sustainability.
For the Agreement to become operational, two-thirds of WTO Members have to notify their acceptance of it to WTO. Negotiations are also ongoing at the WTO on outstanding issues on fisheries subsidies, including on further enhancements of the Agreement.
