1st January 2003
Labelling for Environmental Purposes
Environmental labelling has long been the subject of discussion in the World Trade Organization (WTO). Questions on its status within WTO rules and the risk of its use for green protectionism have been batted around for almost eight years. The WTO Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE) first addressed the issue on September 15–16, 1994, at the newly formed body’s third meeting.1 Six months later, at an April 1995 meeting of the Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade (CTBT), Canada noted that this was an area that “would need considerable work.”2 Since that time, and despite a considerable amount of work and the continued increase in the number and scope of eco-labelling schemes in operation, WTO members have still not managed to resolve many of the key issues.
On November 14, 2001, WTO members adopted the Doha Declaration and initiated a new round of global trade talks. Trade and the environment was one of the issues that was singled out for attention and, in particular, paragraph 32 of the Doha Declaration mandates the CTE to give particular attention to “labelling requirements for environmental purposes.”3 The CTE continues to discuss the issue with the view to submitting a report and recommendations for future work, including possible negotiations, to the next WTO Ministerial in Cancun, Mexico, September 10–14, 2003.
At the same time, the CTBT, which has sole negotiating authority over the TBT Agreement, is also conducting talks on labelling in the context of its review of the implementation of the Agreement. Although these discussions are now being driven by the CTE’s timetable—its mandate to report to the Mexico Ministerial in September 2003—the CTBT is dealing with a host of its own, non-environmental, issues. Eco-labels are therefore only part of the political picture. Members of the CTBT asked the WTO Secretariat to develop a background paper on labelling in late 2002, and to host an informal workshop on the issue in early 2003. In response, the WTO Secretariat has prepared two background papers, which are available on the WTO web site:
a list of notifications relating to labelling (1995-2002) – G/TBT/W/183; and
a list of specific trade concerns related to labelling brought to the attention of the Secretariat since 1995 – G/TBT/W/184.
The present paper considers whether there is any reason to believe that WTO members might finally resolve an eight-year old debate on eco-labelling. It reviews the history of discussions and singles out some particularly important issues. It also considers the obstacles facing the CTE. A review of the main issues and the history of discussions, as well as a consideration of the state of the current debate, suggests that there are significant structural and substantive obstacles in the way of a resolution. It is not yet possible to predict a positive outcome from the work in the CTE on eco-labelling.