Depositing the “Instrument of Acceptance of the Protocol Amending the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies”

(Geneva, Switzerland): In the afternoon of Monday, 6 May 2024, AT World Trade Organization Headquarters in Geneva, Her Excellency CHAM Nimul, Minister of Commerce, led the Cambodian delegation to deposit the “Instrument of Acceptance of the Protocol Amending the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies” to Mrs. Angela ELLARD, Deputy Director-General of the World Trade Organization.

Mrs. Ellard expressed her sincere appreciation for the cooperation and congratulated Cambodia for its formal acceptance of the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies. Depositing the instrument of acceptance of the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies today reflects our unwavering commitment and relentless effort to regulate subsidies for illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. This deposition illustrates Cambodia’s commitment and contributes to a solution for ensuring and protecting life underwater and ocean sustainability, thus attaining the UN Sustainable Development Goals. She also emphasized the importance of the agreement, which will strongly benefit Cambodia, for which fisheries play an important role in its food security and economic growth. This agreement is significant for Cambodia as a least-developed country, which attaches to international collaboration in preserving the sustainability of the world’s oceans.

It is important to note that Cambodia is the first LDC country in the Asia-Pacific region, the 7th among the 36 LDCs, and the 73rd member of the WTO to have formally accepted the agreement.