FAO Fisheries Report No. 719

Report of the
THIRD AD HOC MEETING OF INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS ON WORK PROGRAMMES RELATED TO SUBSIDIES IN FISHERIES

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS
Rome, 2003

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92-5-105028-7
ISSN 0429-9337

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© FAO 2003

FAO.
Report of the third Ad Hoc Meeting of Intergovernmental Organizations on Work Programmes Related to Subsidies in Fisheries. Rome, 23-25 July 2003.
FAO Fisheries Report. No. 719. Rome, FAO. 2003. 69p.

ABSTRACT

The Third Ad Hoc Meeting of Intergovernmental Organizations on Work Programmes Related to Subsidies in Fisheries took place at FAO headquarters from 23 to 25 July 2003. Representatives from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Council, the Association of Southeast-Asian Nations, the Caribbean Community Secretariat, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the Permanent Commission for the South Pacific, the United Nations Environment Programme, the World Trade Organization and three invited experts attended the meeting. Mr Ulf Wijkström, FAO Fisheries Department, acted as chairperson of the meeting. The agenda contained two main items: (i) presentation and discussion of current work programmes on subsidies in fisheries and (ii) presentation and discussion of methodologies used by participating organizations to establish the effects and impacts of subsidies. Under this point, FAO presented its work programme related to fisheries subsidies. The main component of this work programme is a number of fishery-specific case studies on the impact of subsidies. The impact would be established by undertaking: (i) descriptive and qualitative trend analysis of a number of selected subsidies and indicators; (ii) quantitative analysis of the effects of subsidies on effort and resources through a simple model; and (iii) elaboration of the Hannesson framework (OECD) intended to measure the importance of the fisheries management regime in determining the impact of subsidies. Given the limited time available to undertake the studies it is expected that the results of the studies are unlikely to give final answers.

The meeting discussed at length the draft FAO work programme. It addressed the overall technical relevance and realism of the study, its objectives, the analytical procedures and models proposed for the analysis and the assumptions, limitations and concerns that need to be considered in the implementation of the work programme.

The representatives from the various Intergovernmental Organizations expressed their support of the proposed work plan, their eagerness to learn from its results, and a willingness to assist whenever possible. There was a general agreement that the proposed work constituted a very important first step in the analysis of historical impacts of fisheries subsidies in individual fisheries.