The Cabinet of Fiji agreed that parliamentary ratification be undertaken for the partial Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies.
AFS is the first World Trade Organization agreement that focuses on environmental sustainability and is a significant step towards ensuring the ocean’s sustainability.
This agreement aims to tackle one of the key drivers of overfishing by curtailing trade-distorting subsidies.
Subsidies are payments made by nations to commercial fishing operators to keep those businesses profitable.
The partial agreement prohibits certain fisheries subsidies in three situations. They are illegal, unreported, or unregulated fishing (Article 3), fishing of overfished stocks (Article 4), and fishing on unregulated high seas (Article 5.1).
The Fijian government states that fisheries subsidies, if not disciplined, will contribute to overfishing, including illegal, unreported, and unregulated fisheries in our waters, thus leading to both environmental and economic harm and the irreversible depletion of fish stocks in the Pacific.
Meanwhile, Fiji received widespread support and commendations from WTO members for its high-quality report during its fourth trade policy review in Geneva Switzerland last month.
The review provided comprehensive insights into Fiji’s trade and economic policies.