MP worried WTO subsidies ban will spell end of EI for fishermen

By Brian Scott

FOR THE SOU’WESTER

Newfoundland and Labrador MP Scott Simms is worried fishermen in this province may soon be left out to sea regarding employment insurance qualifications.

And it all has to do with the Doha Development Round, which is a series of negotiations among World Trade Organization members, including Canada.

Included in those talks is a proposal to ban fishery subsidies to commercial fishing operations to eliminate overfishing and the depletion of fish stocks. To the Bonavista-Gander-Grand Falls-Windsor MP, right now, banning subsidies translates to eliminating employment insurance benefits for commercial fishermen.

“They’re trying to finalize a deal through the World Trade Organization that all countries will sign onto, and they have something in there called fishing subsidies,” Simms said.

“They want to eliminate fishing subsidies that increase the amount of fishers because they have to conserve. In the proposal, the chair of the fishery subsidies committee states that EI is not bothered, and our negotiators said don’t worry about EI because EI is a general program that won’t be affected, but as I pointed out to them, our EI for fishermen is calculated not on weeks of work, but on the value of their catch.”

To the WTO, that means EI for fishermen is the same as a subsidy he said.

According to Simms, Canadian officials have not made a formal objection to the proposal. India and Indonesia, he added, have asked for exemptions since they are third-world nations and have all small boats, and Canada has asked for an exemption because it, too, has all small boats.

“But in the grand scheme of things, we don’t use small boats,” he said. “The 45-foot and 64-foot vessel is not what the WTO considers small boats. When they talk about small boats, they’re talking about those punts they go out in off India about a mile from the shore, whereas we’re going out to the limit in these (bigger boats).”

A statement released by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans said Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade David Emerson both disagree with any WTO proposal to prohibit employment insurance benefits to fishermen:

“Both Minister Emerson and I (Hearn) have repeatedly said that the current text is unacceptable from Canada’s perspective. We agree with the principle of fighting overfishing, and we’ve taken real action since forming government that is producing real results. Thanks to Canada’s leadership, there has only been one serious violation in the NAFO area in the past 18 months. Canada has been and will continue to be clear that blocking fish harvesters from EI benefits will not help improve fish stocks at all, which is one of our main objectives.

“Just like it has done in fighting foreign overfishing, and defending the seal hunt, our government will continue to stand up for the fishery on the international stage. These negotiations will be no exception.”

(Brian Scott is a journalist with Transcontinental Media’s Beacon newspaper, which is a contributor to the Sou’Wester.)