외교부

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

            Due to the inherent nature of fishing activities, deep-sea fishing industry faces seasonal and annual fluctuations in catches, making it hard for fishermen to secure stable conditions for the sustainable fishing operation.  In order to alleviate this difficulty, the Program of Support for Development of Deep Sea Fishery was introduced to provide necessary loans for fishermen.

 

 

 

            "Deep-sea fishing companies" are domestic companies which operate with fishing vessels in the waters beyond national maritime jurisdiction under the permit issued by the Minister for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.  On the other hand, "overseas resources development companies" refer to domestic companies which invest in joint venture or other forms of companies incorporated in foreign countries in the business areas such as aquaculture or fishing.

 

 

 

            The applicants for this program do not have to prove the existence of their financial hardships.  Nor does the government agency evaluate the extent of financial difficulty of each applicant.  However, it should be noted that this program was originally designed to address the financial difficulties of fishermen for the stable fishing operations and management considering fishermen's relatively low income and seasonal and annual fluctuations in catches.

 

 

 

            In general, "coastal fisheries" mean fisheries which use fishing vessels with less than the threshold of 8 tonnages, authorized by the heads of the respective local governments.  "Offshore fisheries" mean fisheries which use fishing vessels with 8 tonnages or more, under the permit issued by the Minister for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.  Costal and offshore fisheries are conducted within the national maritime jurisdiction, while deep-sea fisheries are operated in the waters beyond national maritime jurisdiction.

 

 

            It is difficult to calculate separate percentage of loans that are provided to coastal, off-shore, and deep-sea fishery, respectively.  It is because clear-cut distinction of activities in coastal, off-shore and deep-sea fishery is practically hard.  Measuring the shares of the Support, less than one third was for coastal, off-shore and deep-sea fishery during the reporting period.  And the rest(more than two thirds) was for aquaculture, inland fishery, etc. 

 

            It should be noted that only deep-sea fisheries are eligible to participate in this program.  The definitions of coastal, offshore and deep-sea fishery under this program are the same as those used in the Support for Fishing Activities Program. 

 

 

 

            As reported above, Korea confirms that only the deep-sea fisheries are eligible for the program. 

 

            The purpose of this program is to reduce the number of licensed vessels to a fixed level in consideration of fisheries stock status according to the Fisheries Act.  Under this program, Korea has not issued a new fishing license in the coastal and offshore waters since 2001 therefore the total number of 15,220 vessels had been scraped from 1994 to 2010.  

 

 

            Please refer to the WTO document, G/SCM/Q2/KOR/37. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

            In 2010, the total earmarked budget of the investment fund and loans to the Korean fisheries industry was 1.39 trillion KRW, most of it disbursed accordingly.

 

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