One of China’s largest fishery firms has gotten a CNY 84.29 million (USD 12 million, EUR 10.8 million) check from government to help it invest in overseas operations.
Shanghai Kaichuang Distant Water Fishery Co., a unit of state-owned Shanghai Kaichuang Marine International Co., described the payment as state aid to help it invest in “international cooperation projects.”
The payment is a departure from China’s traditional subsidy procedure, which are typically described as payments for overhaul of vessels and reimbursements for purchases of equipment, or for research and development purposes.
As a publicly listed company, Kaichuang is required by law to disclose the subsidy payment, as well as its total earnings. While this year’s subsidy payment is broadly in line what it received from China’s government in 2017 and 2018, Kaichuang nevertheless has had a difficult year financially due to low global tuna prices – a trend brought about in part by a surge in Chinese distant-water fishing activity.
Governmental subsidies to fishing companies have come under criticism from the World Trade Organization, which is hosting high-level international negotiations this month in an effort to finalize an agreement curbing them. Issues under discussion this week include the exclusion of subsidy payments by any nation to vessels flying flags of convenience. The talks have effectively been ongoing since 2001 but were scheduled to conclude by the end of 2019 to meet the United Nations’ 2020 Sustainable Development Goals.
Separately, China has promised to sign on by next year to the Port State Measures Agreement, which binds signatory nations to keep records and to bar catches suspected to be from illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing.
The Chinese distant-water fleet is the world’s largest with an official count of 2,600 vessels, according to a report from the Stimson Center, a Washington D.C., U.S.A.-based think tank. Beijing has pledged to cap its total of distant-water vessels at 3,000 vessels by 2020 and has also promised to designate 10 fishing port clusters by 2025, a move intended to make it easier to police the unloading of Chinese trawlers, ostensibly in an effort to cut down on IUU activity.
Photo courtesy of Han Maomin/Shutterstock
