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. 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. 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.
