ACP Coordinator, Hon. Kamina Johnson,

Fellow Ministers,

Excellencies

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Bula Vinaka and good morning,

On behalf of the Pacific Group, I extend my appreciation to the delegation of Jamaica and to you Honourable Minister for the coordination that has been carried out under your leadership.

We have reached so far only through our solidarity and collective voice at the ACP and we need to continue this solidarity as the ACP throughout this Ministerial Conference.

Chair,

For the Pacific, Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies remains the priority in this Ministerial Conference. And we will ensure that harmful subsidies are eliminated to protect our resources for our future generations.

We are at the pivotal point, whether to deliver on fisheries subsidies, after talking about it for 20 years. For the Pacific it has always been a priority that we must have a credible and balanced agreement that delivers the mandate of this negotiation in line with this Ministerial conference and SDG 14.6.

Chair,

We acknowledge the revised text that is on the table is a good basis for going forward. And we need to protect the gains that have been made, particularly in securing the de minimis we want, as we move forward to seek improvements to the issues that remain outstanding for the groups.

Apart from the definition of fish, the Pacific would like to propose 2 issues:

1. ACP to support the Pacific position on proportionately for notification. The current draft for notifications requires that all forms of subsidies must be notified – which will be a costly and onerous obligation. There should not be obligations to notify on fishering undertaken due to insignificant support, which does not contribute to overcapacity and overfishing, provided by the Governments. For instance, we in the Pacific, we give small gifts of tools like fishing hooks and fishing nets to the small fishermen’s such to support the livelihoods of the maritime islands and coastal communities; and
2. For the Pacific preservation of sovereign rights under UNCLOS Article 62 is critical. is very important for us to preserve our rights to license to foreign vessels at the rate that we agree with the party. This should be excluded from the scope of the agreement.

Chair, despite the gains made, we are unhappy that the agreement fails to discipline the largest subsidisers. These large fishing nations are not making ambitious cuts or commitments to reduce overall subsidies that contribute towards overfishing and overcapacity.

We would like to remind the group that in terms of impact, the largest subsidiers are not being disciplined to meet the SDG 14.6 mandate that we all have committed to.