Policymakers in the 10th WTO Ministerial Conference in Kenya yesterday decided to bring effective discipline in subsidies on fishing to conserve the fish resource worldwide. WTO members agreed to reduce subsidies on fishing and recognise the crucial role of fisheries in ensuring food security, employment and livelihoods, the World Trade Organisation said in a statement. The WTO recognised that fisheries subsidies contribute to economic losses in the fisheries sector and leave serious impact on food security and livelihoods, particularly in developing countries. The leaders took such decisions as, in many cases, subsidies encourage overfishing and illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. “We will continue to seek appropriate enhanced WTO transparency and reporting to enable the evaluation of the trade and resource effects of fisheries subsidies programmes,” according to the statement. However, India is set to up the ante at the WTO meet to ensure that its interests are adequately taken care of after a draft text on agriculture did not address its concerns, news agency TNN reports. India said the text largely focused on an agreement on elimination of export subsidies on farm goods and phasing out government support for marketing and transport of agricultural products. India is also not satisfied with the text on fisheries trade that has proposed punitive action for unauthorised fishing, something that many developing countries are not comfortable with given that it goes back on the tentative agreement reached in 2008. On Wednesday, 53 members of the WTO, including China, signed an agreement to remove import tariffs on 201 information technology products, according to a report of Reuters. The products account for 10 percent of global trade and should mean consumers pay less for items such as GPS navigation systems, computers and other goods, while companies see cuts in the cost of machine tools. The first major global tariff-reducing deal of the WTO in 19 years will remove tariffs on trade worth $1.3 trillion, which is expected to give a $190 billion boost to the world economy. “The ITA expansion is a major win for the World Trade Organisation, the producers of the information and communications technology products and very importantly for consumers around the world,” said US Trade Representative Michael Froman. In July, the WTO finalised the list of 201 products. Tariffs on them will be lifted in several stages, taking effect for 65 percent of the products concerned immediately and full implementation within seven years. Once in force, the agreement will update the WTO’s 18-year-old Information Technology Agreement and add the new products to the list of goods covered by zero-tariff and duty-free trade. Technology manufacturers such as General Electric Co, Intel Corporation, Texas Instruments Inc, Microsoft Corp and Nintendo Co are among companies expected to benefit from the deal. The conference will end today.
