WTO told to enforce rules better

THE World Trade Organisation (WTO) should enforce rules better to allow nations like Papua New Guinea to optimise value from fisheries resources, says Manufacturers’ Council PNG chief executive officer Chey Scovell.
He said developed member countries of the WTO have more influence through subsidies despite rules in place against this.
Scovell was part of a panel for the keynote address of WTO director-general Roberto Azevedo at the inaugural Apec discussion series last week.
He said PNG produced about 17 per cent of the world’s tuna, and including other Pacific countries, about 40 per cent.
“Most of the value derived from harvesting and value-adding of that resource is not given to PNG and the Pacific Islands,” Scovell said.
“We can’t compete because of subsidies.
“The market is beyond us because foreign governments provide very significant subsidies for people to come and extract our resources.
“When you look at the WTO, on who is driving the conversation, it is not the people who have the resources but those who want to feed their people more cheaply,” Scovell said.
“I think we need to increase our presence so that we who own the resources can get the optimum value for it.”
Azevedo said fisheries subsidy was an issue that was progressively being addressed.
“That’s not an easy conversation as the lines are not easily drawn,” he said. “We have been negotiating this for many years and have not seen a whole lot of progress.
“We can take the opportunity we have with Apec and ask them to take a closer look at this.”