Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 5 • Number 34 • 9th October 2001
WTO’s CTE Work Distracted By Ministerial Preparations
On 4 October, the WTO Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE) held the last of three meetings on its agenda for this year. The meeting was originally scheduled to address items 9 (Services) and 10 (WTO’s relations with other organisations) of the CTE 10-point work programme, but in the end Members did not discuss the latter. However, Members did discuss item 6 (environment and trade liberalisation) and both thematic ‘clusters’ taken up in previous CTE meetings (see http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/envir_e/cte00_e.htm for the full work programme). The CTE also adopted its 2001 CTE Report to the General Council.
The meeting was originally scheduled to last two days. However, due to the tight schedule of other ongoing sessions around the draft Ministerial Declaration for the Fourth WTO Ministerial Conference scheduled for November, few high-level officials attended the CTE meeting and work was completed during its first morning session.
Despite high expectations from civil society groups, item 10 of the work programme on "Input to the relevant bodies in respect of appropriate arrangements for relations with intergovernmental and non- governmental organizations" was not discussed. One trade source reasoned that this omission was due to the fact that this issue was already being addressed by heads of delegations in the General Council in connection with discussions on the draft Declaration, which makes a cursory reference to civil society in par. 8 of the preamble. One delegate also pointed out that there had been barely any discussion on this issue in previous CTE meetings, thus the lack of discussion was not unusual, in particular given the time constraints on delegates. Item 10 will be taken up at the last CTE meeting of next year, currently scheduled for 9-10 October.
Item 9 of the CTE work programme requires Members to address the relationship between trade in services and the environment as mandated by the Marrakesh Ministerial Decision on Trade in Services and the Environment. At the meeting, Switzerland requested the Secretariat to prepare a study on the environmental impact of liberalising trade in service sectors such as tourism, transportation, environmental services and energy. The Secretariat is expected to finalise the study in time for the first CTE Meeting of next year, scheduled for 21-22 March 2002. In this context, the EC expressed the need for an update of the "Negotiating History Of Article XIV Of The GATS [General Agreement on Trade in Services] And The Ministerial Decision On Trade In Services And The Environment" (see WT/CTE/W/9, available at http://docsonline.wto.org/gen_search.asp). The document concerns the general exception clause to the Agreement, modelled on Article XX of the GATT. Like its GATT cousin, GATS Art. XIV provides Members with the possibility of adopting national measures not consistent with their obligations under the GATS if they are "necessary to protect human, animal or plant life or health." Canada, Japan, and the Czech Republic backed the proposal for an update.
Item 6: environment & liberalisation
The CTE continued discussions on issues related to item 6 (environment and trade liberalisation), focusing on agriculture, energy and environmental services (see BRIDGES Weekly, 20 February 2001). Item 6 of the work programme mandates the CTE to look into "the effect of environmental measures on market access, especially in relation to developing countries, in particular to the least developed among them, and the environmental benefits of removing trade restrictions and distortions". In this context, India reiterated previously voiced concerns regarding a substantial shift of emphasis over the last few years from the first part ("effect of environmental measures on market access") to the second part ("environmental benefits of removing trade restrictions and distortions") of item 6, thereby effectively shifting the focus from developing to developed country concerns.
Discussions on item 6 moved on to a paper submitted by the WTO Secretariat (WT/CTE/W/200) on "Environmental benefits of removing trade restrictions and distortions: The energy sector". Among the findings, the paper highlights the potential for subsidies to have environmentally adverse and market distortive effects. Several countries argued that the term "subsidies" needed a better clarification, including a distinction between "good" and "perverse" subsidies. India and Egypt emphasised the positive impact that more substantive transfer of knowledge would have in containing the negative environmental side effects of energy production.
Finally, the CTE adopted the yearly report (WT/CTE/6) to be submitted to the General Council, and announced the agenda for next year. Meetings in 2002 are currently scheduled for 21-22 March, 12-13 June and 9-10 October.
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