Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 5 • Number 10 • 27th May 2005

European Study Highlights Environmental Impacts of Doha Round

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A study released by the European Commission on 22 April warns that negotiations currently underway as part of the WTO’s Doha round of trade liberalisation talks may exacerbate climate change and biodiversity loss due to increased emissions of greenhouse gases and the conversion of forest land to agricultural uses. The Sustainability Impact Assessment (SIA), carried out by an independent research team at the University of Manchester in the UK for the EU, looks at liberalisation in the agriculture, forests and distribution sectors and makes predictions about impacts on economic, social and environmental aspects of sustainability. It found that while liberalisation is likely to have an overall adverse impact on countries’ ability to achieve Millennium Development Goal 7, on environmental sustainability, the implications for developed and developing countries differed widely. While developed countries can expect overall effects from liberalisation to be beneficial across sectors and in all three sustainability aspects, developing countries will face mixed economic and social effects, and negative environmental effects overall. The study highlights the potential for significant negative impacts on the environment from trade liberalisation that are likely to result from increased transport, packaging, unsustainable forestry harvesting, increased agricultural production in biologically sensitive areas, and increased use of agro-chemicals. However, the assessment also notes that some of the economic gains expected from liberalisation could in principle be directed towards offsetting these impacts. The WTO Doha Declaration in paragraph 6 “takes note” of voluntary environmental assessments done by WTO Members and recognises that WTO rules should not prevent countries from taking measures to protect human, animal or plant life or health as long as the measures are not disguised restrictions on or unjustified protection from international trade.

The latest SIA reports are available at http://www.sia-trade.org/wto/index.htm

ICTSD Reporting; “EU/WTO: Negotiations To Impact Badly On The Environment”, FoE EUROPE BULLETIN, May 2005.