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Paul Steele
5/3/15Author name
Date
Paul Steele
5/3/15
Paul Steele, IIED
Minnow and the
Whale:
fish taxes versus subsidies

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Paul Steele
5/3/15
Overview
• Fiscal policies that affect fisheries
• Fishing taxes: decrease fishing effort
• Taxes as Minnow: Low, but increasing
• Fishing subsidies: increase fishing effort
• Subsidies as the Whale: massive, but some
progress (Sumaila et al, 2013)
• Minnow and the Whale: low taxes versus
massive subsidies
• When will the Minnow catch the Whale?

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Paul Steele
5/3/15

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Paul Steele
5/3/15
Fishing taxes: the minnow
• Fishing revenues crucial for some
LDCs and SIDS (eg Pacific,
Mauritania, Mozambique)
• Some progress in increasing taxes
• Pacific license fees for tuna have
increased fourfold to $230 million in
2012

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Paul Steele
5/3/15

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Paul Steele
5/3/15
F

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Paul Steele
5/3/15
Subsidies as the whale:
massive but some progress
- Global Capacity enhancing subsidies
(eg fuel) were $20 billion in 2009
- Global Beneficial (eg Monitoring) and
ambiguous subsidies were $15 billion
- EU is worst, then Japan
- USA much better
- WTO negotiations failed
- But SDG target to reduce subsidies

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Paul Steele
5/3/15
SDG marine target
14. Conserve and sustainably use the
oceans, seas and marine resources for
sustainable development
14.6 by 2020, prohibit certain forms of
fisheries subsidies which contribute to
overcapacity and overfishing, and
eliminate subsidies that contribute to
Illegal Unreported and Unregulated (IUU)
fishing, and refrain from introducing
new such subsidies

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Paul Steele
5/3/15Conclusion: when will the tax
minnow catch the whale subsidy?