Ambassador reports WTO fisheries subsidy negotiations are making progress

Article summary

The chair of the fisheries subsidy negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO), Ambassador Santiago Wills of Columbia has reported on the consultations held with WTO members since the start of 2022. Ambassador Santiago Wills has stated at the informal meeting of the negotiating group, that His Excellency had the ‘general sense that members are interested in using the current period to continue trying to make progress towards concluding the negotiations as soon as possible.’ The fisheries subsidies negotiations were scheduled to take place during the 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12) which was indefinitely postponed because of Swiss travel restrictions imposed in November 2021 because of the recent emergence of a particularly virulent coronavirus (COVID-19) strain. Ambassador Santiago Wills had presented a draft agreement before the MC12, which will now be the subject of various meetings to narrow the differences on a range of issues.