Publication

The World Trade Organization (WTO) has a crucial opportunity to address the problems of overfishing and overcapacity. The Doha Development Agenda set forth a negotiation to improve disciplines on fisheries subsidies. The buildup in fleet capacity, particularly since World War II, and the deployment of increasingly powerful fishing technologies have depleted fish stocks worldwide. Fisheries resource management has been inadequate to forestall the global decline, with more than three quarters of all fish stocks now either fully exploited or over-exploited.