Hong Kong Accepts WTO Fisheries Subsidies Agreement
21 August 2023 Sustainable Development Goals
The Acting Permanent Representative of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China to the World Trade Organization (WTO), Mr. Lai She-ming, today presented Hong Kong’s letter of acceptance of the WTO Fishery Subsidies Agreement to the Director-General of the WTO in Geneva. The agreement is the second multilateral trade agreement reached by the WTO since its inception, and the first by the organization with environmental sustainability at its core.
Iweala welcomed Hong Kong’s formal acceptance of the Fisheries Subsidy Agreement. She pointed out that Hong Kong is a producer of Marine fishing products and a major trading and consumption place for fish products. Like all members, Hong Kong has a stake in ensuring the sustainability of global fisheries and a healthy Marine ecology. Hong Kong therefore has much to gain from the entry into force of this historic WTO agreement.
“I hope that the lead taken by Hong Kong, China, in accepting the Protocol will encourage more WTO members in Asia and around the world to quickly follow suit,” she said.
Mr Lai said that Hong Kong, China, has always been a strong supporter of the multilateral trading system, and is pleased to submit the instrument of acceptance to the WTO and work with other countries to implement the agreement, which will bring benefits to trade, development and the environment.
With Hong Kong’s formal acceptance of the Fisheries Subsidies Agreement, the WTO has received 16 deposited instruments of acceptance. The Agreement will enter into force when it is accepted by two-thirds of the WTO members (i.e. 110 of the 164 members).
Earlier, China’s Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao had submitted China’s letter of acceptance to WTO Director-General Ivella in June this year, marking China’s completion of domestic legal procedures for accepting the Agreement.
The importance of the Fisheries Subsidies Agreement
After 21 years of arduous negotiations, on June 17, 2022, the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference adopted the Fisheries Subsidies Agreement and its Protocol, declaring the relevant protocol open for acceptance by members. It is the longest negotiated agreement in the WTO and the second new multilateral trade agreement concluded since the establishment of the body in 1994.
The Fisheries Subsidies Agreement is the first WTO agreement aimed primarily at achieving environmentally sustainable development goals. The Agreement prohibits subsidies for illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing; Prohibit subsidies for fishing activities involving overexploited fish stocks; It is prohibited to subsidize fishing activities in unregulated high seas areas.
On the basis of traditional WTO subsidy rules, the Agreement innovatively incorporates fishery management elements such as fishery law enforcement, resource sustainability assessment, policy transparency and international cooperation, establishing an organic link between fishery subsidy policies and sustainable development orientation, and between WTO rules and rules of international organizations in the field of fisheries. It will further promote the continuous transformation of member countries’ Marine fishery subsidy and management policies to a scientific, refined and green direction.
Earlier, on the 40th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), Secretary-General Guterres urged States to ratify the Fisheries Subsidies Agreement as soon as possible to ensure that all ocean policies are based on the most advanced scientific, economic and social knowledge.