WTO launches second wave of fishing subsidy talks

The World Trade Organization set sail Monday on a “second wave” of negotiations on fisheries subsidies, the new head of the talks announced, after months stuck on the rocks.

The second stage is a follow-up to the historic agreement on fishing subsidies reached at the 12th WTO ministerial conference in June last year. But the absence of someone to chair the process, after the departure of Colombian ambassador Santiago Wills at the end of September, led to paralysis at a crucial point in the talks.

Under the June agreement, the global trade body’s 164 members committed to keep talking on outstanding issues in order to strike a comprehensive agreement at the next WTO ministerial conference, to be held in the United Arab Emirates in February 2024.

But the second wave of negotiations could not start because members struggled to agree on a new chair for the so-called Negotiating Group on Rules overseeing the process.

They have finally found a replacement for Wills in the hot-seat at the WTO’s headquarters in Geneva: Icelandic ambassador Einar Gunnarsson.

He chaired his first plenary meeting on Monday, reporting back to the members on talks he held between February 8 and 15 with some 30 delegations representing individual members and groups of members.