The Economist magazine reports on developments from the Doha Round of World Trade Organization (WTO) where delegates are hoping to hash out an agreement on fisheries subsidies. The article summarizes some of the issues surrounding an agreement on fisheries subsidies within the WTO including the idea that a deal on fisheries subsidies may be delayed by the slow progress of non-fisheries related topics at the Doha Round.
Some of the recent work on fisheries subsidies by Rashid Sumaila and others in the Fisheries Economics Research Unit is used in the article to intimate the magnitude of government expenditure on fisheries subsidies that often promote over-exploitation. For example, our research suggests that subsidies to the global fishing fleet are between $US 25 – 30 billion per year with more than $US 16 billion of this amount to subsidy programs that lead to over-capacity. Considering the landed-value of global fishing fleets is estimated to be about $US 80 billion per year, subsidies are quite significant. Indeed, more than 30% of the value of global fisheries is subsidized by consumers around the world.