Victoria Villarruel, Vice President of Argentina / Image: Revista Puerto / FIS

The Senate Approves WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies

ARGENTINA
Wednesday, April 24, 2024, 01:00 (GMT + 9)

The bill on accession to the World Trade Organization Fisheries Subsidies Agreement and the fishing vessel safety bill known as the Cape Town Agreement obtained approval in the Upper House. Now they will go to Deputies for treatment.

After officials from the Undersecretariat of Fisheries presented the proposal to adhere to the WTO Fisheries Subsidies Agreement to the Senate Foreign Relations and Worship Commission last March, it achieved approval this Thursday. They also spoke about the need to approve the 2012 Cape Agreement to improve the safety of fishing vessels, a requirement that extends to vessels that operate in international waters. Now both projects were sent to Deputies for treatment in that Chamber.

Source: Revista Puerto

Gabriela Navarro, director of Fisheries Management, told the senators at the time of the presentation of the WTO Agreement: “For Argentina it is a priority because it has been one of the countries that promoted this agreement to be implemented so that they discipline fishing subsidies, because there are countries with a lot of economic power that access distant areas to fish and this is detrimental to countries like ours,” indicating that they capture straddling species and compete in the same markets.

“We are directly harmed by these fleets that capture the same resources that are on our platform,” Navarro continued and added that “it is very important for us to end subsidies for overfishing, to the control of illegal fishing we will add the control of fishing in distant waters. It would be a good sign for Argentina to be in the photo of the countries that have approved this agreement,” she concluded.

The Cape Town Agreement was celebrated in 2012 in South Africa, being promoted by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) seeking to guarantee the safety and working conditions of commercial fishermen and observers, implementing the provisions of the Torremolinos Treaty of 1977.

The states that are part of the agreement have a period of ten years to establish provisions related to radio communications and a period of five years to implement provisions related to life-saving devices, emergency procedures and navigation equipment, in vessels of one length. 24 meters and larger.

Source: Stockfile FIS

“The 2012 Cape Town agreement reinforces and complements the international rules for the safety of fishing vessels, with the purpose of contributing to the improvement of the working and personal conditions of fishermen, as well as contributing to the fight against fishing. illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) and taking into account that the eventual entry into force of the Agreement will allow the establishment of uniform international safety regulations for fishing vessels,” the bill states.

The proposal of the Undersecretariat of Fisheries had no objections and finally last Thursday both projects were treated; The senators gave their positive vote for approval, with 66 affirmative votes and none negative. Now the project has been sent to Deputies where it must be definitively approved.

Source: Revista Puerto  (Translated from the original in Spanish)

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