Some believe that developing countries and LDCs should be exempt from any new restrictions on harmful fisheries subsidies, as they are considered necessary for alleviating poverty and enabling developing countries to compete with large fishing countries. In reality, however, harmful subsidies are not effective for competing with large fishing nations and can worsen poverty in the medium to long term

The success of these agreements sends an important message to WTO negotiators ahead of the next critical Ministerial Conference from November to December – reaching an agreement on harmful subsidies is indeed possible. However, the twelve countries that make up these agreements recognise that without an overarching international agreement to manage the one global ocean, their efforts may not amount to much

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The roadmap to fisheries sustainability is clear – where science-based management has been intensely applied, fish stocks are now healthy or improving. The problem lies in that we still lack reliable information about the health of the stocks which make up at least half of the world’s catch, thus the prognosis of their stock status is that most will continue to be overfished. These data-limited fisheries are critical for food security and micronutrient requirements in some of the world’s poorest communities. Greater investment in fisheries management systems will lead to healthier fish populations, to the benefit of all the communities that rely upon them.

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