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WTO / FISHERIES SUBSIDIES
STORY: WTO / FISHERIES SUBSIDIES
TRT: 03:48
SOURCE: WTO
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 15 JULY 2021, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, WTO headquarters entrance
2. Mid shot, WTO headquarters entrance with WTO logo
3. Wide shot, exterior, arrival of Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Ambassador Wills, Chair of the Fisheries Subsidies Committee
4. Med shot, arrival of DG Okonjo-Iweala and Ambassador Wills, Chair of the Fisheries Subsidies Committee, in the meeting hall
5. Close up, arrival DG Okonjo-Iweala on podium
6.Wide shot, podium
7. Med shot, gavel
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General, World Trade Organization (WTO):
"In 2001, ministers decided to clarify and improve WTO disciplines on fisheries subsidies. Taking into account the importance of this sector to developing and least developed countries. Leaders and ministers have elaborated and reaffirmed this mandate from Hongkong in 2005 to Buenos Aires in 2017, making it clear that sustainability was the raison d'être of these negotiations. They made a fisheries subsidies agreement part of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and set a deadline for reaching one. But twenty years into these talks, we are yet to conclude an agreement. Unsustainable fishing practices continue to take a toll on our oceans, encouraged by the government financial support we are seeking to discipline. Excellencies the time for action is long overdue."
9.Wide shot, podium
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General, World Trade Organization (WTO):
"Your actions today can help place us on a trajectory towards a better future."
11. Mid shot, meeting room
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General, World Trade Organization (WTO):
"Excellencies, I believe that we are all genuinely committed, but a shift of mindset is necessary for us to bridge the final gaps that continue to separate members. I convened this meeting because we need your collective political guidance to propel the negotiations to the final stage, so that we can deliver an agreement soon."
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Santiago Wills, Chair, Fisheries Subsidies Negotiations:
"This process started in 2001 and since then many deadlines have been missed, including the 2020 deadline contained in SDG target 14.6. which WTO ministers reiterated in your own declaration at MC 11. These negotiations are about sustainability of precious shared resources on which millions of people, including many poor people depend. This is not the usual WTO business of commercial relations. The negotiations were urgent when they began twenty years ago and have only become more so as each year has gone by, and fish stocks have continued their alarming decline. So, a result is long overdue, and the world is watching."
14. Close up, country nameplates
15. Close up, country nameplates
16. Close up, country nameplates
17. Close up, country nameplates
18. Close up, country nameplates
19. Close up, country nameplates
20. Wide shot, fish sculpture on delegation table
21. Close up, fish sculpture
17. Wide shot, meeting room
18. Wide shot, meeting room
19. Wide shot, meeting room
20. Mid shot, people on the podium listening
21. Close up, podium
22. Close up, Ambassador Wills on podium
23. Close up, DG Okonjo-Iweala on podium
World Trade Organization (WTO) members edged closer today (15 July) to an agreement which would set new rules for the global fisheries industry and limit government subsidies contributing to unsustainable fishing and the depletion of global fish stocks.
During an all-day meeting with 104 ministers and heads of delegation, WTO members pledged to conclude the negotiations soon and certainly before the WTO's Ministerial Conference in early December, and to empower their Geneva-based delegations to do so. Members also confirmed that the negotiating text currently before them can be used as the basis for the talks to strike the final deal.
Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said, "in 2001, ministers decided to clarify and improve WTO disciplines on fisheries subsidies. Taking into account the importance of this sector to developing and least developed countries. Leaders and ministers have elaborated and reaffirmed this mandate from Hongkong in 2005 to Buenos Aires in 2017, making it clear that sustainability was the raison d'être of these negotiations. They made a fisheries subsidies agreement part of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and set a deadline for reaching one. But twenty years into these talks, we are yet to conclude an agreement. Unsustainable fishing practices continue to take a toll on our oceans, encouraged by the government financial support we are seeking to discipline. Excellencies the time for action is long overdue."
Okonjo-Iweala said, “your actions today can help place us on a trajectory towards a better future."
She said, "I believe that we are all genuinely committed, but a shift of mindset is necessary for us to bridge the final gaps that continue to separate members. I convened this meeting because we need your collective political guidance to propel the negotiations to the final stage, so that we can deliver an agreement soon."
Ambassador Santiago Wills of Colombia, who chairs the Rules Negotiating Group overseeing the fisheries subsidies negotiations, said, "this process started in 2001 and since then many deadlines have been missed, including the 2020 deadline contained in SDG target 14.6. which WTO ministers reiterated in your own declaration at MC 11. These negotiations are about sustainability of precious shared resources on which millions of people, including many poor people depend. This is not the usual WTO business of commercial relations. The negotiations were urgent when they began twenty years ago and have only become more so as each year has gone by, and fish stocks have continued their alarming decline. So, a result is long overdue, and the world is watching."
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