On 5 December 2011 the Office of the United States Trade Representative released a document titled "USTR GREEN PAPER ON CONSERVATION AND THE TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP".
In the paper it is stated that:
"The United States and other TPP countries have proposed TPP disciplines on subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and overfishing, potentially lighting the way for a WTO multilateral agreement on fisheries subsidies."
I am impressed by the move of the move of the US "and other TPP countries" to propose binding rules (disciplines) in the context of bilateral/multilateral trade deals. I tried to find the documents relating to this proposals but I did not succeed. So if readers know more about the subject I will be very glad to hear (or read) from them.
When reading in detail the USTR text a number of questions came to my mind:
Will these "disciplines" apply in the same way to all countries in the TPP or will the rules take into account different degrees of development? Will they apply to trade (i.e. to products) among TPP participants? Or rather to the harvesting of some species? Does this mean that some countries that are providing subsidies now will have to change their policies because of bilateral/plurilateral rules?
At any rate, this is a remarkable (and bold) development!
Here is the link to the USTR document:
http://www.ustr.gov/about-us/press-office/fact-sheets/2011/ustr-green-paper-conservation-and-trans-pacific-partnership
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