GENEVA, Switzerland (CMC) — Barbados has welcomed the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies that came into force on Monday and will be a key policy in the fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

This is the first WTO Trade Agreement that has clear sustainability elements, and the negotiations began in 2001, with Barbados, which has been a central actor in the discussions, advocating for the priorities of small island developing states.

Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, who spoke at the ceremony at which the new agreement came into force, said that the ratification of the agreement proved that the WTO can deliver.

“Today, the WTO has shown that multilateralism can and does work. Today, you have taken a decision that is transformational and generational in impact. Today you have made a commitment to our oceans, our sustainability and to our global fisheries,” Mottley said.

“The WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies is a landmark. For the first time, WTO members have delivered an agreement that recognises the complex and symbiotic relationship between trade and environmental sustainability,” she added.

WTO Director General Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala accepted the ratifications of Brazil, Kenya, Mali, Oman, Vietnam and Tonga during the ceremony with the President of France, Emmanuel Macron; President of Cabo Verde, José Maria Neves; President of Chile, Gabriel Boric; Prime Minister of Iceland, Kristrún Frostadóttir; Prime Minister of Malaysia, Anwar bin Ibrahim; Vice President of Switzerland, Guy Parmelin; and Deputy Prime Minister of Fiji, Manoa Kamikamica, all congratulating the WTO on the achievement.

Barbados ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations, the WTO and several other Geneva-based international organisations, Matthew Wilson, in welcoming the agreement, said that the trade and environmental community needed this.

“The WTO needed this. Multilateralism needed this. This agreement opens the door; actually it kicks open the door on why it makes sense to ensure that trade rules support sustainability initiatives and that good sustainability initiatives can lead to more inclusive trade.”

Barbados is a member of the steering committee of the WTO Fisheries Fund, which seeks to provide capacity building to developing countries to implement the agreement.