India joins WTO’s agreement on fisheries subsidies
India has officially joined the World Trade Organization's Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, which aims to curb illegal fishing and the over-exploitation of marine stocks. The agreement prohibits government support for unsustainable fishing practices while protecting the livelihoods of small-scale, traditional fishers.
Why it matters
This move aligns India with global environmental sustainability standards and protects its domestic small-scale fishing sector from competition with heavily subsidized industrial fleets from other nations.
India on Monday (July 20, 2026) announced it had joined the WTO’s agreement on fisheries subsidies, which prohibits government support to illegal fishing activities and over-exploitation of stocks.
The agreement focuses on subsidies related to marine wild-capture fishing and fishing-related activities at sea. However, aquaculture and inland fisheries remain outside the scope of this pact, which came into force on September 15, 2025. It was adopted by consensus at the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference in Geneva in June 2022 and is the first multilateral WTO agreement with an environmental sustainability objective.
“India deposited its Instrument of Acceptance of the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies (AFS) on 20th July 2026, thereby becoming a Party to the Agreement,” the Commerce Ministry said in a statement.
The formal acceptance was handed over by the Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal to the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in Geneva.
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