| COFI:FT/VIII/2002/10
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| COFI:FT/VIII/2002/10
|
COMMITTEE ON FISHERIES |
SUB-COMMITTEE ON FISH TRADE |
Item 11 of the Provisional Agenda |
Eighth Session |
Bremen, Germany, 12-16 February 2002 |
ENHANCING THE OPERATIONS OF
THE
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1. At its Seventh Session in 2000, the COFI Sub-Committee on Fish Trade (COFI:FT) agreed to place on the agenda for its Eighth Session a discussion on ways to improve its operation, including on ways to encourage more involvement by members in the debate during the Sub-Committee sessions (paragraph 38 of the Report of the Seventh Session). The purpose of this document is to provide information considered useful for guiding the discussion and for providing indications of possible options in the organization of future sessions and/or alternative arrangements for the delivery of the Sub-Committee's functions and work.
2. The terms of reference of the Sub-Committee on Fish Trade as agreed upon by the Committee on Fisheries at its Sixteenth Session in 1985 are given in Annex I. In addition to these services to be provided for the Committee, the Sub-Committee achieved recognition as the International Commodity Body for fishery products by the Common Fund for Commodities. The functions and responsibilities in this respect are reflected in Annex II. It may be recalled that the FAO Conference on Fisheries Management and Development in 1984 adopted a Programme of Action on International Trade in Fish and Fishery Products which is the origin of the present Sub-Committee on Fish Trade.
3. The World Fisheries Conference suggested that a Multilateral Framework for Consultation on International Trade in Fishery Products be established which "....would be developed along the lines of existing intergovernmental commodity groups and with a structure which would allow it to become eventually eligible to receive funding from the Second Account of the UNCTAD Common Fund for Commodities". The Conference further "....anticipated that the intergovernmental group could deal with market prospects, trading practices and criteria for fair trade, including the harmonization of inspection procedures and regulations. It could be a forum for exchanging views on technical issues of international trade in fish and fishery products and for discussing possible solutions. The work of the group could also contribute to constructive debates in other fora, particularly if both government and industry are represented....Those activities" [referring to specific studies] "could provide the basis for a programme of market development activities which could in due course be financed from resources of the ... Common Fund for Commodities".
4. At the time of the decisions of the World Fisheries Conference (1982 figures) total world trade in fishery products amounted to US$ 15 000 million and the share of developing countries in this trade represented 43% of these exports. The trade levels in 2000 with a global total of US$ 55 000 million and a share of 50% for developing countries would seem to indicate an even stronger need for an international mechanism for exchange and consultation. The success of the FISH INFOnetwork established by FAO and the very fruitful cooperation with the Common Fund for Commodities and other donors to the benefit of developing countries in particular, but not exclusively, underline the positive impact of this international cooperation.
5. The First Session of the COFI:FT took place in Rome in 1986 and biennial sessions are generally the pattern followed. There have been two three-year intersessional periods in the early '90s, which were due to the limitations in the financial resources of FAO. Document COFI:FT/VIII/2002/Inf.9 provides the list of documents of the sessions held so far.
6. It is important to note that the Rules of Procedure of COFI apply mutatis mutandis also for the Sub-Committee on Fish Trade which, therefore, may establish subsidiary working parties or study groups. These could be commodity related and/or issue specific, limited in time in line with Conference Resolution 13/97.
7. As shown in document COFI:FT/VIII/2002/Inf.9, traditionally the Sessions of the Sub-Committee were organized as plenary sessions during a one week period whether as stand alone event in Rome (sessions I to IV) or in conjunction with a major international fish trade fair in Bremen (from session V to date). E-mail conferences and video conferencing could be useful tools for holding of small study or work groups, intended to prepare the ground for effective and informed discussion in plenary.
8. It is FAO policy to make use of all five official languages where appropriate; therefore customarily COFI is using Arabic, Chinese, English, French and Spanish. The sessions of the Sub-Committee which were held in Rome used Arabic, English, French and Spanish which also reflected the main working languages of the FISH INFOnetwork: INFOFISH, INFOPECHE, INFOPESCA and INFOSAMAK. The national service INFOYU did not exist at the time but China was expected to join INFOFISH. When the venue of sessions moved to Bremen in Germany under the sponsorship of the City of Bremen the language coverage had to be reduced to French, English and Spanish, due to limited funds available by the hosts. Prior to the Seventh Session, however, FAO decided that Arabic should be provided again and the Fisheries Department covered the related costs.
9. There will be a difference in the cost if a Drafting Committee is established or whether members agree to follow the Council instructions of 1995 and elect a Rapporteur to draft the report with the help of a group of friends. This has been done for the last three sessions and English was the language used (the Rapporteurs were from Namibia, Bulgaria and Australia, respectively).
10. Typically, a session of the Sub-Committee takes six sittings, including the adoption of the report; a Drafting Committee would normally require two more sittings.
11. It may be appropriate to work with a mix of language use at different levels:
12. The onus of organising the Sub-Committee has so far been on FAO with support from a major donor and at the moment no change is expected in this respect. However, if the Sub-Committee would wish to create specific work groups, whether as subsidiary working parties or study groups these may be sponsored by other members (countries) or the FISH INFOnetwork. There is an example and precedent demonstrating that such an approach can be very successful; such as the various committees of the Codex Alimentarius Commission.
13. The frequency of the meetings of work groups would be determined on a case by case basis and could be called in conjunction with meetings of the Sub-Committee or not. They could be one off events or have regular intervals, depending on the subjects to be dealt with. Generally, the ad-hoc sub-groups should have specific topics and a limited duration.
14. The lists of documents reproduced in document COFI:FT/VIII/2002/Inf.9 provide an overview of the subjects discussed by the Sub-Committee in the past and the agenda and documentation for the current session based on the requests of the Sub-Committee at the previous meeting and can be regarded as the work to be undertaken in the foreseeable future. They will probably be complemented following the discussions during this current session.
15. More specialized subjects (and therefore potentially suitable for work in smaller groups) could be related to:
16. A possible programme of meetings for the next five years would be:
17. The Sub-Committee is invited to discuss the proposals outlined and to add additional experience with a view to agree/advise on arrangements for the future. If appropriate, volunteers for hosting events are welcome to come forward.
The Sub-Committee shall provide a forum for consultations on technical and economic aspects of international trade in fish and fishery products including pertinent aspects of production and consumption. In particular, the work of the sub-committee will include:
18. All project proposals have to be submitted to the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) through an International Commodity Body (ICB). ICBs are intergovernmental organisations which concentrate on specific commodities, mainly through consultations between consumers and producers and analyses of market developments. The COFI Sub-Committee on Fish Trade is the recognized ICB for fishery products. Article 18.3 (a) of the Agreement specifies the following types of commodity development measures under the Second Account: "The measures shall be commodity development measures, aimed at improving the structural conditions in markets and at enhancing the long-term competitiveness and prospects of particular commodities. Such measures shall include research and development, productivity improvements, marketing and measures designed to assist, as a rule by means of joint financing or through technical assistance, vertical diversification..."
19. The Governing Council of the CFC, at its Seventh Meeting in December 1995, approved measures to be financed from the First Account Net Earnings that would assist Developing Countries and Countries in Transition to effectively participate in the global commodity market, and, while contributing to improved market transparency and competition, would enhance their income from commodities. The section of Decision 1 (VII/1995) defining the type of measures reads as follows: "Such projects would focus on, inter alia: promoting physical market development; the enhancement of market infrastructure and support services to facilitate private sector initiatives; institution-strengthening including training at all levels; enhancement of commodity market risk management and commodity trade financing; and micro-policy advice on commodity market development".
20. A key element of the Net Earnings Initiative is to assist commodity producers in Developing Countries and Countries in Transition in the transformation from regulated to liberalised market systems, also addressing market failures.
21. Participation of Private Sector: Private companies contribute technical, commercial and financial inputs to CFC-funded projects. Moreover, in order to promote dissemination, replicability and sustainability of project results, within and across countries, representatives of relevant private companies are often invited to terminal workshops which are regular feature of projects. Overall, more than 150 private firms have shared the results of the CFC projects through technology dissemination workshops, while around 70 private sector companies are directly participating or have participated in the implementation of approved projects.
22. Intellectual Property Rights: Fund-financed projects, by promoting commodity competitiveness, have in some cases produced results which are commercially important and of potential interest to companies worldwide. The Fund seeks to ensure that project results are accessible at no cost to LDCs. Several projects have potentially patentable results, though the Fund has so far pursued patenting only where it is considered to be in the interest of Developing Countries' free access to the project findings.
23. Environmental Considerations: The Fund seeks to reflect environmental considerations in all the projects it supports. In some cases, important environmental benefits flow from the projects. An example is cotton where a project intended to raise productivity also reduced the use of toxic chemicals for pest control. Other examples relate to the development of new uses for agricultural wastes from sisal and cocoa.
24. Co-ordination of Technical Support for Commodity Development: Co-ordination of assistance to commodities has become an important aspect of Fund-supported projects. The Fund's activities encourage more attention and more resources to be given to important commodity development issues. The pooling of available technical knowledge through the Fund promotes problem solving through collaborative institutional approaches. Examples of such coordination can be seen in projects supporting rubber, cotton, groundnuts, coconut, cocoa, coffee and others. The CFC is presently intensifying its co-ordinating efforts with the aim to increase efficiency and to bring about synergies.
