Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I wanted to make some comments in relation to the report of the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties on the Protocol Amending the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies.

David Fawcett (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That was at item 17, which we have technically passed. You can seek leave. That is common practice for people to go back. Are you seeking leave?

Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am in the hands of all my colleagues.

David Fawcett (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Are you seeking leave to make remarks?

Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes.

Leave granted.

I'm grateful for leave being granted. I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

This Joint Standing Committee on Treaties report recommends that Australia ratifies the World Trade Organization agreement on fishery subsidies. It is actually a matter that is important for our national interest and for the countries in our region. It is a historic agreement that strikes the right balance between curbing distortionary fishery subsidies while at the same time supporting food security. It is the first agreement struck at the World Trade Organization to focus on environmental issues. It aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal on sustainable fishing and it is a real win for the Pacific states.

We have known for some time that fish stocks are at risk of collapsing in many parts of the world due to over exploitation. Figures from Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations confirm this. More than one-third of global stock is overfished today compared to only 10 per cent in 1974. Other estimates suggest up to half of all assessed stock is overfished. In theory, increasing pressure on fish stocks globally should mean fishing takes more time and costs more money but that is not what we're seeing in reality. The injection of subsidies estimated at US$35 billion per year globally distorts the market and allows many fishing fleets to operate for longer and further out at sea.

A big chunk of these subsidies are indeed distortionary. A 2019 peer-commissioned study estimated $22 billion of the $35 billion in subsidies were harmful, directed into industrial fleets and used to accelerate overfishing. Meanwhile, the 260 million people who depend on marine fisheries to keep families, households and businesses afloat, many in the Pacific, are left stranded. That is why this agreement was needed, to prohibit and discipline harmful subsidies.

After 20 years of negotiation at the World Trade Organization, a deal was finally secured at the most recent ministerial conference in June of last year. It was a marathon five-day negotiation. Led by trade minister, Don Farrell, Australia played a critical role in getting the deal over the line, working through the night and in lockstep with like-minded partners including Fiji, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat and all of the Pacific Island states who were indeed magnificent in the way that they stood up. I am very grateful for the effort that was put on by everybody, including Australia's permanent representative ambassador, George Mina, as a key part of the negotiating team.

It is notoriously difficult to find agreement at the World Trade Organization, comprised of 164 members, all with differing national and regional interests. It requires complete consensus from countries with different interests, at different development levels and pursuing competing agendas. But it was Australia's leadership at the WTO 12th ministerial conference and our stalwart commitment to backing our Pacific neighbours that was the driving force behind delivering the agreement. It was also the persistence and consensus-building approach that the WTO Director-General, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, is known for.

The WTO is fundamental to maintaining the global and regional rules-based trading system. When Dr Okonjo-Iweala visited Australia last year, the Albanese government announced $2 million to assist developing countries, particularly in our region, to implement the landmark WTO agreement on fishery subsidies. The agreement will enter into force once two-thirds of members formally accept the protocol and the agreement on fishery subsidies by depositing an instrument of acceptance.

Australia's treaty process is well underway, and the tabling of this report is the final step before it's provided to the executive council in our ratification process. As preparations for the WTO ministerial conference in Abu Dhabi next February continue at the official and ministerial levels, this agreement reinforces Australia's credentials as a trusted partner in the Pacific, determined to fight for our shared interest to secure a peaceful and prosperous region. But the work isn't done.

There's more to do to wean the world off harmful agricultural subsidies, which the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates could rise to $2.5 trillion by 2030. These subsidies act to distort agricultural products all around the world, undermining food security and efforts to reduce emissions from the agricultural sector, as well as making high-quality, efficient and unsubsidised Australian agricultural products less competitive in global markets.

Of course, each country has its own interests, its own regional influences and its own domestic politics to contend with. This is why we must be bold and take Australia's traditional leadership approach, as the leader of the Cairns Group of Fair Trading Nations, to find opportunities for common ground and build consensus for reform in the multilateral trading system with the WTO, in time.

Debate adjourned.