The WTO fisheries subsidies Agreement and the incomplete implementation of target 14.6 of the Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract

The approval of the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies (2022) highlights several aspects of interest for the analysis of contemporary international order, since it reflects the difficulties linked to the translation of the notion of sustainable development into binding legal obligations. The Agreement, approved within the WTO despite having environmental (non-commercial) nature, represents a partial achievement of SDG target 14.6, by defining the prohibition of subsidies linked to illegal fishing and to the fishing of overexploited stocks. Regarding the third pillar of the negotiation (the prohibition of subsidies that encourage fleet overcapacity) States did not reach a minimum consensus. Furthermore, States also failed to agree on the special and differential treatment that should be granted to developing countries during the application of the new disciplines. This paper reviews both the achievements and the shortages of this legal text, adopted at the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference.