FIRST SESSION: RESOURCE SITUATION, SUSTAINABILITY AND IMPACT ON FISH TRADE
1) Strengthen support to FISH INFOnetwork for the benefit of the fish industry, specially with regard to market information collection and dissemination and with regard to quality and safety of fish products. The network should intensify exchange of experience regarding entrepreneurial achievements and innovations in the sustainable use of fishery resources and consumption promotion.
2) Develop science based criteria for issues affecting international fish trade such as ecolabelling, safety and quality and traceability to satisfy the need for enhancing transparency. FAO objective advice to all operators concerned (consumers, producers, governments, traders and civil society representatives) was considered very valuable in this regard.
3) Study the impact of aquaculture on international fish trade and develop technical guidelines for responsible aquaculture and Good Aquaculture Practices (GAP) and provide assistance for their implementation.
4) Make available information on all relevant elements of import regulations for fish and fishery products and undertake a detailed analysis of the impact of global fish trade liberalization and barriers to trade in fishery products (between developing countries and also focussing on domestic markets).
5) Evaluate and facilitate improving infrastructure, especially post-harvest distribution, quality control, price development and international marketing systems.
6) Monitor international developments related to genetically modified organism (GMO) aspects of fish products, including fish feed.
SECOND SESSION: GLOBALIZATION, INDUSTRY STRUCTURE, MARKET POWER AND IMPACT ON FISH TRADE
1) Get the plethora of stakeholders to recognize the drivers that cause globalization.
2) Strengthen the implementation of the Code of Conduct, in particular as it relates to international fish trade and marketing, and aquaculture.
3) Building capacity to ensure sustainable aquaculture development in particular in the developing world.
4) Building capacity on fisheries management systems and tools.
5) Work on more transparency and analysis on trade and market and investment and services impediments, for example by assessing the impact of their liberalization.
6) Help Member Countries ensure policy coherence among the range of policies that are in play in the fisheries sector (e.g. trade, management, etc.).
7) Study the impact of vertical concentration in marketing channels with specific attention to supermarkets and its impact an the levels of production, processing and wholesaling.
8) Develop assistance programmes for developing countries aiming at improved marketing performance.
9) Create a consultation mechanism between FAO and the private industry with the purpose of increasing the benefits which developing countries can derive from international fish trade.
THIRD SESSION: COST AND EARNINGS, VALUE ADDITION AND DISTRIBUTION OF BENEFITS
1) FAO should work with the private sector and developed countries to transfer know how on production, management and marketing and facilitate joint ventures between companies in developed and developing countries.
2) The feasibility of value addition for seafood products in developing countries should be analysed. Case studies by specie, product and country should be used to advise on attractive possibilities. Options for FAO to assist with marketing and distribution with emphasis on promoting quality products, should be explored.
3) FAO should assist developing countries in meeting new TBT and SPS standards in order to avoid that high quality and safety standards will become technical barriers to trade between developing and developed countries, with special emphasizes on a concrete programme of assistance to the least developed countries.
4) FAO technical assistance facilities should be used to help countries prepare for the next negotiations and developing countries should develop an advisory group of experts, scientific capability and capacities of human resource required to monitor and argue the SPS procedures.
