| 英文摘要 |
In recent international trade negotiations, the trend has been to incorporate environmental standards into trade regulations. Given the oceans’current overfished conditions, relevant trade negotiations and regulations have taken into consideration the standards established in the international fisheries regime. The prime example is the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) . The TPP’s Chapter of the Environment focuses on environmental issues, such as endangered species trade, climate change, biodiversity as well as marine capture fisheries. Regarding marine capture fisheries, the contacting parties acknowledged that the overfishing condition results from: (1) inadequate fisheries management, (2) fisheries subsidies that contribute to overfishing and overcapacity, along with (3) illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU fishing). Therefore, the contracting parties shall take fisheries conservation and management measures based on“internationally acknowledged best practice of fisheries management and conservation”. This mantra is reflected in the international fisheries management mechanism, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1995 UN Fish Stocks Agreement, 1993 UNFAO Compliance Agreement, 1995 UNFAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries along with other UNFAO developed declarations and technical guidelines. According to the TPP, contracting parties shall eventually eliminate subsidies that contribute to overfishing and overcapacity, as well as support measures that combat IUU fishing. During the TPP negotiations, the final draft was still adopted despite different voices raised from different negotiating parties. These rather smooth developments are perhaps resulted from the previous negotiations in the WTO Doha Round Negotiations since 2001 that have experienced different positions of negotiating parties regarding the fisheries subsidies disciplines. In 2007, the Chairman of the WTO Negotiating Group on Rules finally adopted a draft on fisheries subsidies disciplines. Based on the development of applying the trade agreements as means to enforce international fisheries management mechanism, along with the comparisons between the TPP and the WTO Doha Round Negotiations, this paper investigates provisions on marine capture fisheries in the TPP. Also analyzed is how Taiwan, which is expected to join the TPP, responded to these developments via Taiwan’s domestic rules and policies. |