February 15, 2024
Four more members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) - Barbados, Dominica, Senegal, and Uruguay - deposited their instruments of acceptance of the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies on 14 February 2024. High-level officials of Barbados, Dominica, Senegal and Uruguay presented the instruments of acceptance to Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
These newly deposited instruments of acceptance bring the total number of WTO members that have formally accepted the Agreement to 60. This is 55 per cent of what is needed for the Agreement to come into effect (two-thirds of the WTO membership).
The WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies aims to ensure sustainable global fisheries by establishing new multilateral trade rules on harmful fisheries subsidies, such as those related to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. It is the second multilateral agreement, and first environmental agreement, to be negotiated at the WTO since its inception.
The Agreement prohibits support for illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, bans support for fishing overfished stocks and ends subsidies for fishing on the unregulated high seas.