WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/GC/W/368
12 October 1999
(99-4325)
General Council Original:  English
PREPARATIONS FOR THE 1999 MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE
Proposal for Separate Negotiation Group on Fishery and Forestry Products
Communication from Korea
The following communication, dated 7 October 1999, has been received from the Permanent
Mission of Korea.
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Background
1. Fishery and forestry products have special characteristics different from other industrial goods
and fishery and forestry sectors perform unique social and environmental functions. Forestry
resources help land conservation and preserve water sources, both indispensable parts for our daily
life. Fishery sectors serve as an important base for maintaining social cohesion in poor rural areas.
These products, by their nature, are susceptible to quick depletion when coordinated efforts to
conserve them are absent.
2. The international community’s awareness of the special nature of these products has
increased through various fora in the past year s. The previous multilateral trade negotiations,
however, have not properly reflected this new awareness and continued to address these products
from the viewpoint of narrowly-def ined trade liberalization, and treated them like industrial goods.
3. Korea believes that the WTO can play a more important role in taking into account the
specificity of forestry and fishery sectors during the next round of negotiation.
Proposal
4. Considering the unique nature of fishery and forestry products and the functions they
perform, Korea proposes that a separate negotiation group for these products be set up during the next
negotiations. In so doing, the important peculiarities of the sectors will receive more appropriate
attention that will allow them, first, to be dealt with in a comprehensive manner and, second, to strikea balance of interests between importing and exporting countries.
5. Korea believes that the elements below warrant the creation of a separate negotiating group.
These elements should be given due consideration by the WTO Members in the process of further
liberalizing trade.WT/GC/W/368
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A. Fish and fishery products
Sustainable management
6. First, in order to base our discussion on a sound foundation, Member countries need to review
the prospect of capacity to produce fish and fishery products in a sustainable way. The review should
be conducted species by species and based on the data and survey produced by relevant international
organizations such as the FAO on global fish stock and aquaculture.
7. Given the exhaustible nature of fish resources, overfishing needs to be properly controlled
and aquaculture ought to be encouraged. Therefore, unlike other industrial sectors, the government
role for sustainable resource management in the fi shery sector need to be fully recognized and
allowed.
8. In this regard, a distinction should be made between subsidies that lead to excessive fishing
capacity and those that contribute to the conservation of fishery resources.
Public functions
9. The fishery sector provides an invaluable so urce of income to rural communities in islands
and coastal areas. Maintaining the relevant activities is essential for the viability of the communities
which are directly or indirectly related to national social cohesion.
10.  Fishery products also constitute a significant part of a diet as a major source of animal
protein in some countries and regions, particularly in developing countries. Ensuring a stable supply
and maintaining an appropriate level of local production are key in this case. Therefore certain typesof governmental functions for rural viability and stable supply of food are needed in the fishery sector.
Market access
11. In the coming negotiations on fisheries, we ought to try to strike a balance of interests
between exporting and importing countries, taking in to consideration the need for their conservation
and unique functions the sector performs as well as the expansion of trade. Also, trade liberalization
in the fishery sector must proceed in a way to accommodate each country’s different circumstances.
Too ambitious liberalization may bring disturbing consequences to self-reliant poor fishermen and
undesirable social difficulties.
B. Forestry products
Sustainable management and environment protection
12. Forestry resources are exhaustible and reckless exploitation will deplete precious resources.
Thus, forestry resources should be managed systematically and effectively with a long-term
perspective. Both exporting and importing countries should make concerted efforts for sustainable
management of limited forestry resources
13. The size of forests has been shrinking due to excessive logging and farming in forest areas.
There is a growing sense among the international community that destruction of forests has disastrous
effects on all ecosystems. International trade rules should reflect this reality.WT/GC/W/368
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Public functions
14. Forestry resources provide a variety of public benefits such as conservation of land and water
sources, prevent land erosion, as well as perform health and recreational functions. In certain
countries with limited or depleted forest areas, governments have been subsidizing the developmentof artificial forests or re-forestation projects to reap these benefits. Government transfers designed to
promote sustainable forest management should thus be seen in a light different from subsidies that
beget overlumbering and resource depletion, or from subsidies on industrial goods.
Market access
15. Goals and direction of the negotiations should be set in a way to balance interests of timber
exporting and importing countries by assessing the impact that market opening has on sustainable
forest management and that export restraints maintained by exporting countries has on free trade.
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