Advantages and Disadvantages of the Fisheries Trade

The spirit of trade is mutual benefits among all participants. However, current international trade is just like a zero-sum solution with winners and losers and developing a feeling of distrust among participants. Responsible international fisheries trade is an important tool to promote economic growth of many countries and the World Trade Organization (WTO) has been encouraging free trade as a part of globalization. Although free trade is ideal when the world is fair and equitable, current international trade in favor of capital has diverse effects and has both positive and negative aspects, but is not fair and equitable between participants in both producing and consuming countries. Profit-seeking capital behavior is different from community behavior requiring sustainability and the role of government is to balance these two extremes, continually maintaining vital communities. However, many governments including official development assistance (ODA) have been in favor of capital too much to sustain rural fishing communities and developing countries have been repeating the same problems as developed countries have experienced. This paper reviews cases of the most important fisheries trade commodities: shrimp, tuna and salmon. All cases indicate the existence of negative aspects of the fisheries trade. Governments as trustees of people are expected to remove or reduce these negative aspects of international trade and to think of the importance of the community.