THE Philippines is insisting that World Trade Organization (WTO) member-countries, including China, should remove subsidies for fishing operations conducted in disputed waters to level the playing field for poor nations.
Manila pointed out in a recent WTO meeting that its position, which it put forward in 2017, would benefit its fellow WTO member-countries, particularly those that are “financially challenged.”
Under its proposal, the Philippines acknowledged that the WTO should not rule on the matter of territoriality but only on the mere existence of subsidy for fishing operations in disputed waters. This, Manila said, is less politically challenged and would prevent tension.
The Philippines said its proposal “promotes cooperation including joint conservation and management of resources instead of heightening disputes” over maritime territoriality.
“It does not modify and undermine the rights and obligations of every WTO Member under public international law in the field of IUU [illegal, unreported, unregulated] fishing,” according to the Philippine statement, which was delivered during the informal open-ended meeting of the negotiating group on rules held from December 3 to 7.
“And the advantage in fishing of resource-rich members over financially-challenged ones shall cease to exist in disputed waters,” the Philippine delegation to the WTO added.
In Manila, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol told the BusinessMirror on Monday that the Philippines would maintain its position on fisheries subsidies, particularly in disputed waters, at all cost.
“That is our position and we will stick to that,” Piñol said in an interview.
Piñol was part of the Philippine delegation to the 11th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC) in December 2017, when member-countries adopted the decision that they would deliver a final outcome on fisheries subsidies at the 12th MC in 2020 to ensure the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14.6 target.
The United Nations’s SDG target 14.6 calls for: the prohibition by 2020 of certain forms of fisheries subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and overfishing; and the elimination of subsidies that aid IUU fishing. Countries will be stopped from introducing new subsidies under this SDG target.
The SDG target also recognizes that the “appropriate and effective special and differential treatment for developing and least developed countries should be an integral part of the WTO fisheries subsidies negotiation.”
The Philippines argued that it would be to its disadvantage if countries, which are fishing in some of its waters that are being disputed, continue to provide subsidies, as it may prevent Manila from attaining SDG 14.6.
Manila said the entire extended economic zone and continental shelves of the Philippines “are virtually being claimed or at risk of being claimed by a few WTO members as theirs or having sovereign rights over them.”
“The Philippines, however, would also like to highlight—with serious concern—that the proposal to exclude or carve out subsidies in disputed waters from WTO fish subsidies disciplines is tantamount to denying the Philippines of the remedies under the UN leaders’ SDG 14.6 mandate—not only the need to eliminate subsidies to IUU fishing but also the prohibition of subsidies to overcapacity and overfishing,” it argued.
“Incidentally, the Philippines is hardly subsidizing its fishing sector and yet our seas are at the center of marine biodiversity in the world, which are under serious threat of overexploitation and depletion,” the statement read.
The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, acting on a case Manila filed against Beijing, had ruled in July 2016 that China’s excessive claims in the South China Sea, under its “nine dash line” position has no legal basis.
Certain areas of the disputed waters of the South China Sea are “within the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines because those areas are not overlapped by any possible entitlement of China,” the ruling said.
Maritime jurisdictions
China responded to the Philippine position set forth in Geneva last week and argued that “WTO negotiations should not touch” on issues of disputed waters “to avoid complications,” according to a Geneva-based trade official, who was not authorized to speak on the negotiations.
“China further reiterated that members should limit the scope of the negotiations to issues the WTO is equipped to handle and leave out issues concerning disputed waters and fisheries management,” the official said.
However, the Philippines maintained its position that there is an “inherent” and “inseparable” link between illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUUF) and WTO member-countries concerns on “conflicting claims over maritime jurisdictions.”
“The inherent and inseparable linkage is evidently crystal clear—an IUU determination in a disputed water by a WTO panel to trigger a subsidy prohibition discipline would have been straightforward, uncomplicated, and more so less politically charged had a WTO panel were not confronted with the case wherein the involved WTO Members were not embroiled in the territorial dispute,” it said.
The Philippines said the WTO should not rule on maritime disputes and such matter falls within the purview of the United Nations Convention on the Laws of the Seas or Unclos charter.
Manila argued that the role of the WTO, in light of SDG 14.6 target, is to adopt a “comprehensive” and “effective” agreement that would lead to the prohibition or elimination of subsidies including to IUU fishing.
“The WTO must— first and foremost—not entertain revisionism or reinterpretation of what IUU activities are and how IUU fishing should be determined given the well-established public international law under the UN Charter in the field,” the Philippine statement read.
The Philippines urged its fellow WTO member-countries to not allow a “few” members “to legally evade their obligations or their UN Leaders’ political commitment to prohibit or eliminate subsidies that contribute to overfishing and overcapacity and to IUU fishing just because of their concerns on disputed waters.”
The Philippines’s proposal was included in the WTO’s working document on fisheries subsidies. The WTO is targeting to reach an agreement on fisheries subsidies before the end of 2019.
“We are indeed delighted that our proposal is finally resurrected and revitalized, and without a doubt, the Philippines shall not let our proposal be marginalized once more until a positive resolution is secured in MC12,” the statement read.
Image credits: Nonie Reyes