World meeting at WTO to promote agreement on fisheries aid

Madrid, Jul 10 (EFE) .- The countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO) will meet virtually next Thursday to promote the negotiations on fishing aid, which began twenty years ago, in order to regulate the fish exploitation. seas and the fight against illegal activities, but many points of disagreement remain, such as tax benefits for marine diesel.
The 164 WTO partners are invited to a virtual ministerial session to push the ambitious negotiation of fisheries subsidies and promote an agreement, at the end of 2021, which completes discussions hampered by the pandemic and the lack of consensus.
The aim is to limit subsidies that promote overfishing, and among the most controversial points are tax credits on professional diesel, the future of which worries Spanish shipowners and the European Union (EU).
On behalf of the EU, the European Commission will intervene in the meeting, while the Spanish government will participate as auditor
CLASSIFICATION OF FISHING POWERS
The 25 main fishing countries in the world are involved in the negotiations with the exception of Iran (which is not in the WTO).
China is the world leader in fisheries, followed by Peru, Indonesia, Russia and the United States; Spain, the leading power in the EU, is ranked 19th; Chile ranks 9th, Mexico 12th and Argentina 20th, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
Global fishing aid oscillates between 20,000 and 30,000 million dollars (16,900 and 25,300 million euros), according to various studies.
The latest FAO report warned that more than a third of the seas are overfished, although it also recognizes that 79% of the fish that reach the market comes from sustainable fishing grounds.
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