NUSA DUA, Indonesia, (PNA/Kyodo) — The 12 countries involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade negotiations are now planning not to ban fishing subsidies except those that obviously lead to overfishing, negotiation sources said Thursday.
The United States has been calling for a general ban on fishing subsidies, but with many countries disagreeing, the members are arranging a limited ban proposed by Japan, the sources said.
The move comes as ministers of the TPP countries began their three-day discussions on tariffs and other key issues that require political decisions so that their leaders can announce a broad agreement on the pact at a summit next week.
Japan provides fishing subsidies totaling 140 billion yen annually to help stabilize fishermen’s income and secure workforce as well as organize and maintain ports and fishing boats.
The general subsidy ban, Japan feared, would hinder its rebuilding efforts after the massive earthquake and tsunami devastated coastal regions of northern Japan in 2011.
Australia and New Zealand have been in support of the U.S. proposal, but Canada, which presides over the working group on the environment that deals with fishing subsidies, has proposed a partial ban on subsidies that are clearly linked to overfishing.
During the three-day ministerial meeting that continues on Friday and Sunday, the ministers will seek to make decisions on difficult issues in more than half of the 21 fields covered by the pact, including tariff elimination and intellectual property protection.
From Japan, TPP minister Akira Amari attended the ministerial meeting, chaired by U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman.
On the first day, Amari was scheduled to hold a series of bilateral meetings with his counterparts from the United States, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Peru, Australia and Canada.
TPP ministers are expected to direct chief negotiators to conclude working-level talks on e-commerce and other fields that are less contentious, while creating a work plan for striking a deal by the end of this year on more difficult areas, such as intellectual property and tariffs.
The sessions are being held on the margins of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, which concluded preparations at a senior officials’ meeting Wednesday and will start its ministerial meeting from Friday.
The 12 countries in the TPP talks — Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam — are aiming to reach a broad agreement this month and complete negotiations by the year-end.