A World Trade Organization meeting in Geneva has been extended to give international trade ministers more time to reach a deal to end subsidies that promote overfishing in the world’s oceans.
The outcome could impact the way the fishing industry operates in Canada.
“We are finally close to concluding negotiations on fisheries subsidies,” said Mary Ng, Canada’s minister of international trade, in a video statement posted ahead of this week’s WTO meeting.
Canada says it is supportive of ending subsidies.
“I hope that we can all commit to delivering a meaningful outcome to achieve our sustainable development goals and shared environmental ambitions,” Ng said.
The WTO announced Wednesday it would extend the meeting by one day — to Thursday — to try to reach an agreement on fishing subsidies and other items.
It’s estimated 34 per cent of global stocks are overfished.
Environmentalists say one reason is high seas fleets that are not profitable without subsidies.
While Canada doesn’t fish outside its territorial waters, the country has a stake in the outcome, says
Rashid Sumaila, an economist and professor at the University of British Columbia.
“So if Spain is giving subsidies, they are going to just sit outside Canadian waters and the fish that go in and out, they hammer them. So you want to take out subsidies globally so that Canadian waters and the waters of the world will be protected,” he said.
According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Canada spent about a billion dollars in 2018 on income support to fishermen, infrastructure and fisheries management.
Not all could be considered subsidies, but they are part of the fishing industry business model.
Sumaila says employment insurance, for example, would be considered “a bad subsidy.”
“It is specially designed for fishers with good intentions, but that means that it keeps people fishing longer than they would in the market system.”