A Study On Legal Problems Of Fishery Subsidies In The WTO Framework

The fishery resources are of great significance for a country’s food security. How to maintain the healthy, sustainable development of the fishing industry is the common problem the fishing nations faced. In the past, most fishing countries promote the development of the domestic fishing industry by providing high fishery subsidies. However, they have realized that fishery subsidies not only distort international trade, but also lead to overfishing. Since there are no specific regulations on fishery subsidies, fishery subsidies are still subject to the norms of the SCM Agreement. However, due to the special nature of fishery resources, the SCM agreement cannot regulate fishery subsidies very well. Some countries took notice of this phenomenon and put forward the proposal of the establishment of specialized fishery subsidies in the Doha Round of WTO. Thus, the issue of fishery subsidies was officially included in the Doha Round of WTO negotiations in2002.WTO members, due to their different interests, hold different positions and attitudes towards fishery subsidies. The focus of their debate is how to regulate fishery subsidies, in order to achieve the purpose of limiting the catch and conserving resources. WTO members will form different interest groups, and they will carry out long and intense negotiations for the interests of themselves and their groups. In the past11years, a total of more than40rounds of negotiations have been carried out, in which the disputes are quite intense and no unanimous suggestions have been reached yet. But, happily, the negotiation process is becoming increasingly clear and the propose of the draft text on fishery subsidies and the negotiation route map make more people believe that the final outcome of the negotiation is just around the corner.Based on the summary of the basic theory of fishery subsidies, this paper first raises the problems, then analyzes them, and finally proposes some solutions to solve these problems. Chapter one is an overview, in which the definition, classification of fishery subsidies and the relationship between fishery subsidies and agricultural subsidies are introduced. Chapter two analyzes the relevant provisions and application of WTO’s existing systems on fishery subsidies. First, it discusses the relationship between the fishery subsidies and the rules with the exception of environment in the WTO preamble. Second, it analyzes the provisions of the SCM Agreement on fishery subsidies, and points out the shortcomings. Chapter three summarizes the process of WTO’s negotiations on fishery subsidies and divides them into three stages. Then it discusses the negotiations on fishery subsidies position and pattern of the proposed. Finally it analyzes and predicts the direction of the WTO’s negotiations on fishery subsidies. Chapter four analyzes the possible impact of fishery subsidies negotiations on China and what China should do to cope with them.We hold the view that the problems of fishery subsidies are obvious, and it is urgent to regulate fishery subsidies by special regulations. We are cautiously optimistic to the final outcome of the negotiations, and think that we should try to plan for it.