Last Updated: April 12, 2023, 05:20 IST
WTO director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala hailed the transfer for bringing the settlement nearer to coming into impact. (Image: WTO/Twitter)
Before the announcement, solely Singapore, the Seychelles and Switzerland had formally accepted the deal
The United States on Tuesday formally accepted a historic settlement banning dangerous fisheries subsidies, changing into the primary amongst massive fishing nations within the World Trade Organization to take action.
WTO director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala hailed the transfer for bringing the settlement nearer to coming into impact.
“This sturdy present of assist by the United States for the WTO’s work towards ocean sustainability marks a pivotal improve in momentum among the many membership to make sure this landmark settlement enters into drive,” she said in a statement.
Before the announcement, only Singapore, the Seychelles and Switzerland had formally accepted the deal.
After more than two decades of negotiations towards banning subsidies that encourage overfishing and threaten the sustainability of the planet’s fish stocks, a deal, albeit watered down, was finally sealed last June.
The agreement bans subsidies that contribute to fishing that is illegal, unreported or unregulated, or of overfished stock, but it stopped short of banning subsides that contribute to overfishing more broadly.
Members are meanwhile continuing to negotiate on outstanding issues with an eye to agreeing additional provisions to the agreement at the next WTO ministerial conference, to be held in the United Arab Emirates in February 2024.
For the 2022 agreement to be implemented, two-thirds of the WTO’s 164 members must submit their “instruments of acceptance” with the Geneva-based international commerce physique.
Upon depositing Washington’s instrument of acceptance, US commerce consultant Katherine Tai stated her nation was proud to be among the many first to signal on to the “first-ever multilateral commerce settlement with environmental sustainability at its core”.
“It will help improve the lives of fishers and workers here in the United States and elsewhere, and we look forward to building on this agreement with other WTO members,” she stated in an announcement.
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