Pew Praises Entry Into Force of WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies
Required two-thirds of World Trade Organization membership ratify deal to limit harmful fisheries subsidies
GENEVA—The Pew Charitable Trusts today praised the required 111 World Trade Organization (WTO) members who have formally ratified the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, which will curtail government payments that contribute to overfishing and illegal fishing.
The landmark deal, adopted in June 2022 at the close of the WTO’s 12th Ministerial Conference, is the culmination of more than 20 years of negotiations and marks the organization’s first binding multilateral agreement focused on environmental issues.
The agreement, a historic step towards ensuring the ocean’s sustainability, needed to be ratified by two-thirds of the WTO’s 166 members for it to enter into force. That threshold was met on 15 September 2025.
The agreement commits countries to the following:
- Prohibit government subsidies provided to vessels and operators – either businesses or individuals – engaged in illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.
- Prohibit government subsidies provided to support fishing of an overfished stock, unless governments issuing the subsidies are also implementing measures to rebuild the stock to a biologically sustainable level.
- Prohibit government subsidies that enable fishing on the unregulated high seas – the international waters beyond national jurisdiction.
The agreement provides for resources to help countries that have ratified it with implementation. For example, developing nations and least-developed nations can apply for financial assistance through a “fish fund” created by the agreement.
In addition to taking steps to effectively implement the agreement, WTO members must finalize a set of additional rules to curb subsidies not covered in the 2022 deal – particularly government subsidies that contribute to fishing in other countries’ waters and to overfishing and overcapacity, which is a fleet’s ability to harvest more fish than is sustainable. Negotiations to finalize these rules are ongoing and must be concluded within four years of today’s entry into force; otherwise, the agreement will expire unless the WTO General Council decides to keep the agreement in place.
Megan Jungwiwattanaporn, an officer with The Pew Charitable Trusts who works on reducing harmful fisheries subsidies, issued the following statement:
“The entry into force of the WTO’s 2022 Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies is a significant step forward for the ocean and the coastal communities that depend on it. WTO members must now maintain this momentum by ensuring the effective implementation of the agreement and finalizing the additional rules under negotiation – which will meaningfully improve ocean health and put depleted fish stocks on a path to recovery, sustaining livelihoods for generations to come.”
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