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Direct government payments to the industry
- a diverse range of subsidies as grants made for the purchase of new fishing vessels, vessel decommissioning payments (buybacks), fishermen's unemployment insurance, compensation for closed seasons, equity infusions, and price support programmes (Schrank, 2003)
- "Grants for the purchase of new fishing vessels might be introduced to aid in the development of an indigenous fishing industry. Vessel decommissioning payments may be introduced to stimulate a process of reducing excess capacity. Fishermen's unemployment insurance may be introduced to stimulate fishermen to enter or remain in the industry. Compensation for closed seasons may be introduced to permit fishermen to remain in the industry when their incomes are unexpectedly cut because of measures introduced by governments to protect declining fish stocks. Equity infusions may be made to avoid the bankruptcy of fishing firms when the bankruptcy would have catastrophic effects on the employment of a region, particularly when the bankruptcy is caused by a temporary economic occurrence such as the decline of markets during a severe business recession. Price support programmes, whereby government pays producers the difference between market price and an administratively set target price, may be introduced to support fishermen's incomes." (Schrank, 2003)
- Tax waivers and deferrals
- Government loans and loan guarantees, and insurance
- Implicit payments to, or charge against the industry
- General programs that affect fisheries
Case Study:
United States of America's and Canada's fisheries are highly subsidized for many years. Most of the subsidies are generated by the government and monopoly. The main aim of their subsidies is to develop their domestic fisheries. Apart from that, they have also used approximately US$3,000,000,000 on income maintenance for unemployed fishermen and fish plant workers and improving fisheries science. In 1990s, when people start to realize the problem of overfishing, both countries started to subsidize to develop technologies to reduce capacity. (Schrank, 2003)
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Sources used in my research:
- Milazzo, M. (2000). The World Bank: Subsidies in World Fisheries: A Re-examination. Technical Paper, No. 406, 4-6.
- Benitah, M. (June 2004). Ongoing WTO Negotiations on Fisheries SUbsidies. ASIL Insights, 1-3.
- Schrank, W. (2003). Introducing Fisheries Subsidies. FAO Fisheries Technical Paper, 437, 1-5.