ABSTRACT
The Ministerial Declaration adopted at the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Sixth Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong explicitly calls on members to prohibit subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and overfishing. The UNEP-WWF paper discusses sustainability criteria for fisheries subsidies, and proposes options for use at three levels of environmental ambition: 'minimum international requirements', 'minimum recommended conditions' and 'best practices'. The achievement of sustainable development is a fundamental policy and institutional objective of the WTO. Fishing is an economic activity of crucial importance that serves a wide range of purposes in developing countries. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that each fisher creates occupation for another three additional workers. Processing activities; such as loining, canning, smoking, sun-drying and fermenting, and marketing activities, employ many families after the fish are landed. The contribution of fish production to developing countries GDP is estimated to be significant, despite the difficulties in calculating its exact value.
