New fisheries subsidy text favours developed nations

On Monday, Ambassador Santiago Wills of Colombia, who is the chair of the negotiating group on rules, introduced a draft text for clause-by-clause negotations aimed at reducing global fisheries subsidies has subdued India’s proposal to curb such sops. According to Ambassador Wills, the aim of this text is to collectively evolve the draft text ideally into a completely clean text or at least as clean as possible, with only one or two issues left for ministers to decide during the 12th ministerial conference.
The new fisheries subsidy text also lacks an appropriate time-frame for transition, in sync with demands of countries like India. This has left many developing nations disappointed as it seems to offer greater leeway to advanced fishing nations, primarily responsible for the depletion of global fish stocks, to more or less preserve their dole-out status.