ABSTRACT

Schrank, W.E.
Introducing fisheries subsidies.
FAO Fisheries Technical Paper. No. 437. FAO, Rome. 2003. 52p.

FAO Fisheries Technical Paper 437 consists of three chapters and an annex.

The first chapter explains why fishery subsidies are of concern, discusses alternative concepts of subsidies, explains why subsidies are implemented, and briefly considers the difficulties caused by the existence of subsidies.

Chapter 2 sharpens the focus on fishery subsidies, discussing: first, the various types of subsidies that have been used, or are currently used, which affect fisheries; second, a selective history of fishery subsidies that have been implemented in a number of countries, mostly in the western hemisphere; third, a brief history of fishery management and overfishing; fourth, the concern with, and analysis of, fishery subsidies, both by national and intergovernmental agencies, that followed the publication of the FAO document Marine Fisheries and the Law of the Sea: A Decade of Change in 1992; fifth, problems encountered in the measurement of fishery subsidies; and sixth, the discussions of overfishing and fishery subsidies that have taken place in international fora from the Cancun International Conference on Responsible Fishing in May 1992 to the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development in September 2002.

The third chapter considers current discussions of how the international community might be able to impose sufficient discipline to bring under control the subsidies that stimulate overfishing.

The annex is a more technical discussion of the linkage between fishery subsidies and their effects on sustainability and trade.