From WTO negotiations on fisheries subsidies to the reduction of tariffs and certification schemes for trade in forest products, trade policies have strong implications for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity around the globe. Similarly, talks on an international regime on access and benefit-sharing that are underway under the Convention on Biological Diversity could have an impact on existing multilateral trade rules. However, despite the common ground that has emerged in recent years in trade and biodiversity policy-making, a profusion of rhetoric and a lack of coherence has prevented each group of actors from fully realizing the importance of the others’ activities, resulting in little analysis, knowledge or information on the impact of multilateral trade rules on biodiversity and on how biodiversity policies impact on trade and poverty reduction. It is against this background that the Trade and Biodiversity Day seeks to identify and explore key issues at the trade and biodiversity nexus and provide inputs to the perceived lack of synergies between the two policy communities, thereby assuring that trade and biodiversity rules are mutually supportive and work together for sustainable development.

Specifically, the Trade and Biodiversity Day aims to:

• Improve understanding among the trade and biodiversity communities of how the pursuit of their respective goals and objectives might complement or hinder each other;
• Provide information, analysis and knowledge on the impact of multilateral trade rules on biodiversity and how biodiversity policies impact on trade and poverty reduction,
• Promote policy coherence in the multi-governmental fora, including the WTO, the CBD, and WIPO, especially with regards to negotiations on an international benefit-sharing regime;

• Explore the synergies between trade policy and biodiversity as it relates to sectoral themes, including agriculture, intellectual property, fisheries and climate change
• Share the outcomes of UNEP’s Trade and Biodiversity Initiative which assisted countries to assess the impact of trade liberalization on agricultural biodiversity.
• And facilitate synergies between trade and biodiversity policy-making that results in tools that are complementary to the objectives of both communities.

This important gathering will be held on March 26th, 2010 at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The individual sessions will bring together Geneva negotiators, international organisations, civil society and academia in an effort to foster interaction among policy makers involved in different fora, as well as with those influencing policy-making processes.

Garantizar la coherencia entre los objetivos y las disposiciones de la Convención sobre la Diversidad Biológica (CDB), como las relacionadas con el acceso a los recursos genéticos y la distribución de beneficios, y las normas sobre patentes y variedades vegetales previstas en el Acuerdo sobre los ADPIC, han llevado a repetidos llamamientos para la reforma.

Los países ricos en biodiversidad han sido los principales solicitantes de una reforma que incorpore una serie de garantías en el régimen de patentes contra el acceso ilegal y el uso  de los recursos genéticos y conocimientos tradicionales asociados. Estas solicitudes se han presentado en diversos foros, incluyendo la OMC, la OMPI, la CDB, y más recientemente en los acuerdos comerciales regionales y bilaterales.

Algunos avances  se han podido concretar en esta materia. Por ejemplo, las negociaciones en la OMC se impulsaron luego de que en julio de 2008 una propuesta para modificar el Acuerdo sobre los ADPIC e incorporar la divulgación del origen, y potencialmente evidencia de la existencia de consentimiento fundamentado previo (CFP) y el acceso y participación en los beneficios (APB) fuera apoyada por más de 110 países.  Sin embargo  el debate no ha avanzado considerablemente en otros foros a pesar de varios años sucesivos de intensas discusiones.

Es en este contexto que ICTSD, BMZ, GTZ y entidades locales emprenden una serie de diálogos a nivel regional para brindar un apoyo más profundo que permita crear sinergias entre la propiedad intelectual y la biodiversidad. Los objetivos de estos diálogos son precisamente:

1.      Proporcionar una plataforma para que los diferentes interesados examinen las preocupaciones regionales, el conocimiento necesario y las áreas prioritarias para la acción en los ámbitos político y técnico respecto a la relación entre los derechos de propiedad intelectual y el uso sostenible de los recursos biológicos.

2.      Identificar a corto y largo plazo las necesidades de asistencia técnica sobre esta materia que prevalecen a nivel regional.

El primer diálogo de esta serie tuvo lugar en Heredia, Costa Rica, del 17 al 19 de noviembre de 2009.

El segundo diálogo se titula “Medidas Relacionadas con la Biodiversidad y el Sistema de Propiedad Intelectual” y tendría lugar en Lima, Peru, del 10 al 12 de marzo 2010. Reunirá a actores claves en la creación e implementación de las políticas, representantes del sector privado, instituciones de investigación, representantes de la sociedad civil y de los grupos indígenas de Suramérica; con el apoyo de expertos regionales y del sector académico.

El programa de este importante diálogo regional está disponible en: Agenda Tentativa

Climate change forecasts suggest that the Caribbean is particularly vulnerable to the impact of global warming. Tourism and other key economic sectors such as fisheries and agriculture will be major impact-takers under climate change. To make those economies more resilient to climate change impacts and other exogenous shocks both mitigation and adaptation measures will have to be pursued in the tourism sector. Mitigation actions could reduce energy consumption by improving energy efficiency, increasing the use of renewable energy, and implementing carbon-offsetting strategies. Moreover, given the great interest and increasing demand for sustainable and eco-tourism, new business opportunities could emerge.

The present Issue Paper “Resilience Amidst Rising Tides” by Keron Niles, a Research Consultant, aims to deepen our understanding of the key mitigation and adaptation challenges the tourism sector faces in the Caribbean. Moreover, the study explores the issues at the interface of trade, climate change, and sustainable development of concern and interests to Caribbean countries, with a focus on the competitiveness of the tourism sector. Indeed, trade policy has an important role to play in this context. Niles argues that through the potential liberalisation of environmental goods and services (EGS), a few climate friendly technologies could be made available to decrease the Caribbean’s collective carbon footprint. Moreover, environmental services geared to reduce climate change vulnerability and foster resilience could be both imported and exported at the regional and international level.

Ultimately, the purpose of this paper is to foster an informed discussion among governments, private sector and civil society in order to search for plausible ways to address adaptation and mitigation challenges in the tourism sector and build resilience in the Caribbean.

Indeed, many countries from Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP) have inadequate human, financial or technical resources to meet the required standards of food safety. The Global Financial Crisis has placed further restrictions on developing countries’ ability to raise funds to upgrade their food safety capabilities. This aspect is seen as particularly relevant in view of the potential negative impact of climate change on fisheries through the introduction and spread of new diseases to fish, and changes in their traditional operating environment.

This study seeks to examine those challenges and to contemplate possible policy responses. It argues that the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the European Union and ACP countries represent an opportunity to achieve solutions to several problem areas associated with EU SPS requirements. The importance of addressing SPS concerns in the fisheries sector cannot be overemphasized given that the EU accounts for 75 percent of ACP fisheries exports.

Moreover, fisheries are a key source of employment, export revenue and food security for many ACP countries. Internationally, fisheries are one of the few areas where their share of world trade is increasing. Consequently, if the impact of some of the SPS ‘barriers’ were reduced, it could facilitate a further potential expansion of this sector. This paper suggests that in this light, SPS can quite properly be viewed as a tool of development for the purposes of the EPAs, and therefore merits funding on this count alone.

In considering what might usefully be achieved within the framework of rule-making under the Economic Partnership Agreements, consideration is also given to the World Trade Organization SPS Agreement and some of the ambiguities that the SPS Agreement poses in this respect.

Finally, this paper sets out a number of recommendations for consideration by the EPA negotiators. These cover both specific textual wordings dealing with the SPS Agreement ambiguities, capacity building, and the need for regional institutions and regional approaches to the problem, as pests and diseases do not respect political boundaries. Some other recommendations are also made, which whilst relating to SPS issues, have a broader development objective.

This paper is part of ICTSD’s project on fisheries, trade and sustainable development, which aims to foster an inclusive and informed process for crafting multilateral, regional and domestic trade rules and policies in the fisheries sector that are supportive of sustainable development.

While Paragraph 31 (iii) of the Doha mandate calls for a reduction, or as appropriate, elimination of tariffs and non-tariff barriers (NTBs) on EGS, the lack of a universally-accepted definition on EGS has meant that trade delegates have struggled over the scope of goods and services that could be taken up for liberalization. Furthermore, while the aim of the EGS mandate is to liberalize, it provides no indication of the pace, depth or sequencing of liberalization vis-à-vis ‘other’ goods and services. A major fault line in the negotiations on environmental goods is the dispute over whether only goods intended solely for environmental protection purposes should be included, or if other goods that may have both environmental and non-environmental uses should also be incorporated. A number of developing countries are concerned about the inclusion of goods which they perceive to be only vaguely linked to environmental protection. They are also concerned about the import-led impacts of including a broad range of industrial goods on their domestic industries, employment and tariff revenues. In a broader context, a lack of movement on issues of interest to developing countries, particularly agriculture, also inhibits proactive developing country engagement in EGS negotiations.

Particular attention has been focused on the challenges of climate change and the widespread diffusion of climate-friendly technologies which are viewed as critically important in addressing these challenges. To the extent that the WTO negotiations on EGS can help identify and liberalize specific climate-friendly goods and services, they can enhance their wider diffusion. In the WTO context a number of challenges exist, as they do with many other environmental goods in identifying specific climate-friendly goods. This is partly related to the way climate-friendly goods are classified for the purposes of international trade negotiations and also to the fact that the same goods may have other uses in addition to climate-mitigation. Political economy considerations surrounding international trade negotiations indicate that it is will not be easy to liberalize any good or service even if it is important to climate change, and if doing so will also impact a broad range of industries in producing countries. Furthermore, trade-liberalization done in isolation may not necessarily generate greater trade flows in climate-friendly goods and services if the right policies and incentives that drive markets in these goods and services are missing. Hence, it would also be useful to identify the key market drivers of these goods and services that are related to domestic regulatory policies and measures.

In order to enable a better understanding of the patterns of trade flows and market drivers for technologies and associated goods, it is important as a first step to map key technologies and the associated goods that are important for climate mitigation. This needs to be done in a number of sectors. Thus, this paper by Dr. Veena Jha builds on a mapping exercise of technologies and associated goods in the renewable energy sector carried out by experts from the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) and their subsequent classification under the Harmonised System (HS) customs codes at the 6-digit level undertaken by Mr Izaak Wind, an expert and former Deputy-Director at the World Customs Organisation (WCO). Similar mapping studies and customs classification exercises have already been carried out for climate-friendly technologies and associated goods in the building and transport sectors in order to feed into subsequent trade analyses for these sectors.

This paper points out the challenges in identifying goods used solely for renewable energy generation purposes for computing trade statistics. It also highlights goods for which identification is relatively easier and those sectors which appear to be more trade-intensive than others.  In addition, it shows the key exporting and importing countries of renewable energy equipment in a range of sectors including solar, wind, hydro-electricity, geothermal, ocean and biomass. Finally, the paper assesses to what extent tariffs drive trade flows in these technologies, compared to a number of other policy drivers including regulations and incentives. Overall, the paper addresses the issue of the need for a level playing field, particularly for developing country producers. The playing field can be leveled through subsidies provided to renewable energy in the developed world being made available to developing countries while addressing the trade-distorting ones through WTO rules and disciplines. While subsidies need to be phased out over the long term it is important to recognize the importance of some of these subsidies at least in the short to medium term for market creation. All of these issues are important in the context of both the role of the WTO in generating conditions for free and fair trade in climate-friendly goods as well as for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations in creating an enabling environment for markets and domestic demand for these goods, particularly in developing countries.

Dr. Veena Jha is a Visiting Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Advanced studies, University of Warwick, UK, and a research fellow at the International Development Research Centre, Canada. In addition, she is the Executive Director of Maguru Consultants Limited, London, UK. She has worked with the United Nations in various capacities for over twenty years. She was the Coordinator of an important UNCTAD/ DFID/Government of India initiative on ‘Strategies and Preparedness for trade and Globalisation in India’. She has published twelve books on trade and development issues, articles in journals, and was a member of some consensus-building initiatives on trade and environment issues in the last decade. She has been a member of several national and international Advisory Boards, notably the United Nations Secretary General’s Task Force on Millennium Development goals. She has served as an expert on technical committees of the Government of India, industry associations, and non-governmental organisations on trade and development issues.

The paper is part of a series of issue papers commissioned in the context of ICTSD’s Environmental Goods and Services Project, which address a range of cross-cutting, country specific and regional issues of relevance to the current EGS negotiations. The project aims to enhance developing countries’ capacity to understand trade and sustainable development issue linkages with respect to EGS and reflect regional perspectives and priorities in regional and multilateral trade negotiations. We hope you will find this paper to be stimulating and informative reading and useful for your work.

The objectives of this dialogue are:

• To take stock of the current state of affairs in ACP-EC negotiations on fishery aspects of EPA;

• To allow ACP negotiators and stakeholders to address specific issues that remain unresolved in such negotiations, including questions related to rules on investment, transitional arrangements with regard to preference erosion, and rules of origin;

• To consider opportunities and challenges for promoting intra-ACP trade in fish and fishery products.

The dialogue will bring together around 35 negotiators, policy makers and stakeholders in the fields of fishery, trade, and environmental policy to interact in an informal and open fashion, with a view to input substantively in the process of ongoing negotiations on fishery aspects of EPAs.

Translation will be made available, both from English into French and from French into English.

Please follow the link to view a copy of the Draft Agenda.

The objective of the dialogue is to examine, in an informal setting, the main options and proposals raised in the climate change negotiations on technology development and transfer as well as to identify the main issues and gaps that need further discussion and elaboration in the post Copenhagen period, in order to reach an effective international framework for enhancing the diffusion of climate change technologies to developing countries.

Participation on request. To register, please contact Samantha Derksen (sderksen@ictsd.ch).

Background

Promoting the rapid introduction and adoption of climate-friendly technologies is critical to enhancing broader efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions. In particular, enhancing the transfer of technologies required for the mitigation and adaptation of climate change by developing countries is considered an essential element of any new climate change deal.

Climate change negotiations reflect the complexity of the issues relating to technology development and transfer. They also reflect significant divergences on different aspects discussed (institutional and operational) as well as on related topics such as intellectual property, trade, and financing. In the climate change context, there is still significant uncertainty as to the best manner in which to provide effective mechanisms and incentives for the transfer of clean technologies, as well as the barriers that need to be overcome.

Nevertheless, in recent weeks, a number of elements have emerged from the preparatory meetings which could be part of a growing consensus on a “technology package”. These include: drawing lessons from existing partnerships and arrangements, technology action plans, regional centers for technology and innovation, the need to devote greater attention to climate change technologies for adaptation. Many aspects of these different elements still need to be worked out. Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) remain the most controversial issue in the technology transfer discussion given the continued wide gap in positions.

The dialogue will examine these elements and issues in order to identify gaps and priorities with a view towards generating solutions-focused and policy-oriented outcomes to promote the transfer of climate-related technology.

Since the UNFCCC Bali meeting, ICTSD has expanded its activities of research, analysis, and multi-stakeholder engagement to increase understanding and enhance dialogue on transfer of climate change technology, particularly through its Climate Change Technology and Trade Initiative. Research and dialogues carried out in this area will be presented with a view towards enriching the discussions and advancing the policy dialogue.

Programme

9h00 Welcoming Remarks by ICTSD

9h15-9h45 State of play of the negotiations on climate change and technology development and transfer

9h45-10h45 Options and proposals on technology transfer and development: A critical perspective on elements of a possible technology transfer package

10h45-11h00 Coffee Break

11h00-11h30 Empirical evidence about the role of IPRs in technology transfer

11h30-12h15 Climate change, technology transfer and IPRs: Options and Issues

12h15-12h45 The way forward: Copenhagen and beyond

12h45 Lunch

For further information about ICTSD’S activities in the area of transfer of climate change technology:

ICTSD Transfer of Climate Change Technology

ICTSD has invited Dr. Andrew D. Mitchell (Associate Professor at  Melbourne Law School and Visiting Associate Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Centre, Washington D.C.) to present research findings by himself and Ms. Jesscia Rae (Researcher, Melbourne Law School) on the status of commitments in environmental services made by a number of WTO Members at the end of the Uruguay Round as well during the Doha Round (at the time of writing).

Dr. Mitchell will then compare these bound commitments (both market access and national treatment) and improved WTO offers (at the time of writing) with the extent of bound liberalisation that these Members may have undertaken in environmental services under various bilateral or regional trade agreements (RTAs). Dr. Mitchell will also analyse to what extent these commitments, offers and exceptions reflect the regulatory principles on environmental services laid out in an earlier ICTSD paper by Mr. Massimo Geloso Grosso (accessible at http://ictsd.net/i/publications/11432/).

The objective of Dr. Mitchell’s and Ms. Rae’s research is to enable an assessment by WTO trade policy makers and negotiators of the extent of bound and proposed liberalisation of their trading partners both in the context of GATS negotiations as well as in Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs).This will assist them in conducting a reality check on the extent of market access and degree of national treatment they enjoy in the markets of their trading partners as well as the extent of liberalisation (including policy space they retain) in their own markets.

We intend that this informal roundtable provide a valuable opportunity for key trade delegates to engage in an open discussion with Dr. Mitchell on important priority issues and areas of concern in WTO environmental services negotiations and, based on these research findings, their implications for future trade negotiations-both regional as well as multilateral.

Garantizar la coherencia entre los objetivos y las disposiciones de la Convención sobre la Diversidad Biológica (CDB), como las relacionadas con el acceso a los recursos genéticos y la distribución de beneficios, y las normas sobre patentes y variedades vegetales previstas en el Acuerdo sobre los ADPIC, han llevado a repetidos llamamientos para la reforma.

Los países ricos en biodiversidad han sido los principales solicitantes de una reforma que incorpore una serie de garantías en el régimen de patentes contra el acceso ilegal y el uso  de los recursos genéticos y conocimientos tradicionales asociados. Estas solicitudes se han presentado en diversos foros, incluyendo la OMC, la OMPI, la CDB, y más recientemente en los acuerdos comerciales regionales y bilaterales.

Algunos avances  se han podido concretar en esta materia. Por ejemplo, las negociaciones en la OMC se impulsaron luego de que en julio de 2008 una propuesta para modificar el Acuerdo sobre los ADPIC e incorporar la divulgación del origen, y potencialmente evidencia de la existencia de consentimiento fundamentado previo (CFP) y el acceso y participación en los beneficios (APB) fuera apoyada por más de 110 países.  Sin embargo  el debate no ha avanzado considerablemente en otros foros a pesar de varios años sucesivos de intensas discusiones.

Es en este contexto que ICTSD, BMZ, GTZ y entidades locales emprenden una serie de diálogos a nivel regional para brindar un apoyo más profundo que permita crear sinergias entre la propiedad intelectual y la biodiversidad. Los objetivos de estos diálogos son precisamente:

1.      Proporcionar una plataforma para que los diferentes interesados examinen las preocupaciones regionales, el conocimiento necesario y las áreas prioritarias para la acción en los ámbitos político y técnico respecto a la relación entre los derechos de propiedad intelectual y el uso sostenible de los recursos biológicos.

2.      Identificar a corto y largo plazo las necesidades de asistencia técnica sobre esta materia que prevalecen a nivel regional.

El primer diálogo de esta serie se titula “Medidas Relacionadas con la Biodiversidad y el Sistema de Propiedad Intelectual” y tendrá lugar en Heredia, Costa Rica, del 17 al 19 de noviembre de 2009. El diálogo reunirá a funcionarios y personas clave con el objetivo de definir los parámetros de  eventuales diálogos de seguimiento, así como actividades de asistencia técnica.

El programa de este primer diálogo está disponible en: Programa

New and effective financing mechanisms will be required to address such challenges. Indeed, ensuring a useful financial architecture to address climate change will be a structural component to a Post-Kyoto Climate regime. Moreover, trade financing mechanisms like Aid for Trade can play an important role in building economic resilience and addressing climate change mitigation and adaptation objectives in LDCs and SIDS. Indeed, both aid for trade and climate change funds could be used in a complementary and reinforcing manner. However, any new purpose of these financial mechanisms would require additional funding in order to avoid diversion from current objectives and needs.

This meeting aims to explore possible synergies and complementarities between Aid for Trade and climate change funds, as well as absorptive and institutional capacities needed to build such synergies in LDCs and SIDS in the context of climate change.

Click here to watch the UNFCCC webcasting of this event.