The policy is as you quoted it. The history is that the number, the magnitude of these agreements did increase during the late 1990s. It was during a period of budgetary restraint, so there's certainly a correlation there. I believe many of these agreements resulted in improvements in the management of the fishery and the assessment of the stocks, so that's a factor too. I don't think it's easy to disentangle the factors that were influencing the changes over time.
On May 8th, 2007. See this statement in context.