For nearly two decades, member governments of the World Trade Organization have been working on a deal to end harmful fisheries subsidies, one of the main drivers of overfishing. Fisheries subsidies are payments that governments make to fishing fleets to help cover costs such as fuel and vessel construction. But these subsidies damage the environment by incentivizing more fishing than the ocean can handle.

In 2015, world leaders signed on to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 14, which calls for conserving and sustainably using the ocean and marine resources. Target 6 of that goal recognizes the harm that some subsidies cause to fish populations—particularly when they allow boats to fish for longer periods and farther out to sea than they typically would—and tasked the WTO with delivering an agreement by 2020 to end those types of destructive subsidies.

With that deadline fast approaching—and despite delays caused by the outbreak of COVID-19—governments resumed negotiating in mid-September.

The Pew Charitable Trusts believes that conservation must drive these discussions and have fine key components

1. Every country must take on responsibilities under the agreement
2. The agreement must prohibit fuel subsidies
3. The deal must protect overfished stocks
4. The agreement must prohibit capacity-enhancing subsidies to distant-water fishing boats
5. Flexibilities for developing countries must not undermine sustainability

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