Pacific fisheries ministers have agreed to step up efforts at the World Trade Organisation to end the use of harmful subsidies but want to ensure this doesn't undermine small island states.
File photo of fishing vessels. Photo: 123RF
One of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals is an end to harmful subsidies by 2020 and at a meeting last week in Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia ministers agreed to do more to achieve this.
But the executive director of the FSM's National Oceanic Resource Authority Eugene Pangelinan said the Pacific's negotiators also want the context of the Pacific considered in these discussions.
"I think we do certainly support the prohibition of harmful subsidies, particularly those that contribute to over capacity or overfishing, or IUU [Illegal, Unreported or Unregulated], but we are seeking for special considerations for small island developing states in pursuit of their development aspirations."