In Brief

'DISAPPOINTING' RESULTS EMERGE FROM UN SUMMIT

Resolutions agreeing to prevent the incitement of terrorism and enhance conflict prevention by the UN, along with agreement to create a human rights Council, were lauded as a positive outcome of the 14-16 September Millennium World Summit in New York. However, the lack of progress on key issues such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), biodiversity issues and nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament drew criticism from participants and observers alike. Criticism was clearly apparent from UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who remarked, "let us be frank with each other and the peoples of the United Nations. We have not yet achieved the sweeping and fundamental reform that I and many others believe is required". Much of Annan's concern was focused on the failure of the meeting to act on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament or fundamental reform of the UN. Others cited the lack of progress on the MDGs -- a set of eight development goals that range from ensuring environmental sustainability to a 50 percent reduction in poverty and hunger by 2015 -- as a major failing of the summit.

While biodiversity issues were sidelined at the UN Summit, the final summit document does make reference to sustainable development and a number of biodiversity-related conventions. In particular, it states that the "parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity and its Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety should support the implementation of the Convention and the Protocol as well as other biodiversity-related agreement" and the 2010 goal to significantly reduce the rate of loss of biodiversity. Despite the lack of progress at the UN Summit, Annan is continuing to pursue other avenues for the advancement of the MDGs. This was most recently seen in a new UNCTAD report presented to the summit which calls on the WTO to promote trade liberalisation in goods and services from developing countries in order to help achieve the MDGs.

The UNCTAD report is available at http://www.un.org/Docs/journal/asp/ws.asp?m=A/60/225

"Draft Outcome Document," UNGLS, 13 September 2005; "Intriguing opening for UN summit," BBC NEWS, 15 September 2005, "UN Calls on World Trade Organization to Deliver on Development Promises," UN NEWS CENTRE, 15 September 2005; "Swiss Back Annan Over Summit Failings," NZZ ONLINE, 15 September 2005; "Terrorism Takes Centre Stage at UN Summit," THE GLOBE AND MAIL, 15 September 2005, "They Came, They Talked, But Couldn't Agree," THE AGE, 16 September 2005; "World leaders united on terrorism at the UN summit," L'EXPRESS, 16 September 2005; "U.N. Summit: Pushing Forward on Human Rights Reform," BBC NEWS, 16 September 2005.

EU TO EXEMPT SMALL QUANTITIES FROM REACH LEGISLATION

According to a decision by the EU Internal Market and Industry committees on 13 September, chemicals that are only produced in small quantities of one to ten tons in the EU will likely be exempt from the proposed EU REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restrictions of Chemicals) regulatory system obligation to provide chemical and safety reports (see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 31 October 2003). The chemicals -- which make up two-thirds of the total number of chemicals in use in the EU -- will only be subject to the strict REACH registration, evaluation and authorisation of chemicals procedures if they have been deemed particularly hazardous. The two committees of the European Parliament made the decision in reaction to industry concerns regarding the impacts of the heavy regulatory burden on small and medium sized enterprises in the EU and in trading partners. Instead, industry has been advocating the "risk approach", where only products which have a high risk of adversely affecting health and the environment would be subject to regulation, which was effectively adopted for small quantities by the two committees in their decision. Environmental groups and the Green party condemned the decision, however. "Committee members today voted in favour of improving the short-term profits of the chemical industry and removing their responsibility for the safety of their own products, at the expense of protecting public health, workers, consumers, and the environment from hazardous chemicals," WWF, Friends of the Earth and the European Public Health Alliance - Environment Network said in a joint statement. While the legislation aims to protect the environment and human health from hazardous chemicals by shifting the burden of proof of safety to business, industry groups within and outside the EU have raised concerns regarding the potential impacts of the legislation on their costs and international trade. REACH is due to be voted on conclusively in November after approval by the Environment Committee on 4 October.

ICTSD Reporting; "Two EP committees streamline EU chemicals law," EURACTIV, 15 September 2005; "EU Lawmakers Vote to Ease Rules for Chemical Firms," REUTERS, 14 September 2005; "IMCO and ITRE votes fatally undermine REACH," WWF, FOE AND EPH-EN, 13 September 2005.

GLOBAL WATER SAVINGS POSSIBLE THROUGH STRATEGIC TRADE

Countries can save domestic water resources and reduce global water use by importing water-intensive products and exporting commodities that are less water intensive, according to a new report released this month. As outlined in "Saving water through global trade" by A.K. Chapagain, A.Y. Hoekstra and H.H.G. Savenije, national water saving through the import of a product can imply saving water at a global level if the flow is from sites with relatively high water productivity (commodities with a low "virtual water" content, i.e. that use a smaller quantity of water in their production process) to sites with low water productivity (commodities with a high virtual water content). The authors, through new research and analysis of global and national water savings for the period 1997-2001, estimate that virtual water flows save global water resources by 352 Gm3/yr, amounting to a six percent reduction in water use. In order to ensure that global water use is reduced and that scarce water resources are freed up for other uses, they suggest countries should take into account the efficiency of their water use and the value of alternative uses of their water when deciding what products to import and export. Such trading decisions are often made using the idea of comparative advantage, which says that nations can gain from trade if they concentrate or specialise in the production of goods and services for which they have a comparative advantage, while importing goods and services for which they have a comparative advantage. Considering water usage in the analysis of comparative advantage, the report suggests, will lead to trade gains that have higher sustainable development value. If a country uses water inefficiently relatively to other countries, and at the same time does not have enough water for sanitation or consumption, it may make sense for the country to import water-intensive crops such as cotton rather than use domestic water resources to produce them.

The report is available at http://www.waterfootprint.org/Reports/Report17.pdf

WTO HORMONES DISPUTE FOCUSES ON PROCEDURAL ISSUES

The WTO panel assessing a complaint brought by the EC against continued trade sanctions by the US and Canada on certain EU exports (see BRIDGES Trade BioRes, 2 September 2005) gathered for its first meeting from 12 to 15 September in Geneva. The EC claims that the ongoing sanctions are illegal after it had implemented new measures in 2003 to comply with the 1998 WTO ruling in which the Appellate Body agreed with the US and Canada that the EU ban was in violation of the WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS). The panel proceedings have been dominated by procedural questions on how best to address the continued sanctions and very few substantive references have been made regarding risk assessment, the scientific evidence or SPS rules. The question whether new scientific evidence provided by the EC has been used in a satisfactory risk assessment process, and whether this assessment has been made according to the description of a risk assessment in the SPS Agreement, was not argued before the panel. Instead, the parties disagreed on whether the EC, or the US and Canada, are responsible for bringing a case. The EC argues that if the US and Canada thinks that the EC is not in compliance, they should bring a non-compliance case. The US and Canada, on the other hand, have been urging the EC to bring a compliance case if they believe that their 2003 measures have brought them into compliance and that the sanctions should be lifted. At stake is where the burden of proof lies -- whether Members, and which ones, should have to prove compliance or otherwise with a WTO ruling. These proceedings were open to the public -- being broadcast through closed-circuit television to an audience of between 20 to 100 trade negotiators, NGOs, media and academics at the WTO -- after the panel members accepted a joint request by the three parties.

For further information on the proceedings, see Bridges Weekly, 14 Sept 2005, http://www.ictsd.org/weekly/05-09-14/story3.htm.

ICTSD Reporting.

MAKE ENVIRONMENT, DEVELOPMENT CENTRAL TO TOURISM, REPORT SAYS

The World Tourism Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on 6 September released a report promoting sustainable tourism that enhances economic growth while avoiding harm to the environment and local communities. The report, entitled "Making Tourism More Sustainable: a Guide for Policy Makers", provides tourism decision makers with a framework for developing policies for more sustainable tourism, a toolbox of instruments that they can use to implement these policies, and some selected case studies. Although the massive increase predicted in tourism in coming years could enhance living standards in host countries, potentially alleviating poverty in small communities and providing markets for handicrafts, the study authors also point to potential threats to the environment and local communities. The need for sustainable forms of tourism, which the report presents in a set of twelve aims, has also been addressed by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Guidelines on Biodiversity and Tourism Development and a new draft user's manual for the CBD guidelines. Tourism is one of the twelve negotiating areas in the Committee for Trade in Services at the World Trade Organization, and ecotourism in particular has been proposed by the EC as part of their "core list" of environmental services under the Doha Declaration article 31(iii) mandate for enhanced liberalisation of environmental goods and services.

The WTO/UNEP Study is available at http://www.unep.fr/pc/tourism/library/A%20Guide%20for%20Policy%20Makers.htm

The CBD Guidelines and draft User's Manual are available at http://www.biodiv.org/programmes/socio-eco/tourism/guidelines.asp

Information on World Trade Organization negotiations on services can be found at http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/serv_e/s_negs_e.htm

ICTSD Reporting; "WTO And UNEP Are Launching A Joint Publication: Making Tourism More Sustainable: A Guide For Policy Makers," WTO PRESS RELEASE, 6 September 2005.