WTO: ENVIRONMENT CHAIR SUBMITS DRAFT TEXT FOR HONG KONG MINISTERIAL DECLARATION

Along with the Chairs of other WTO negotiating groups, the Chair of the Committee on Trade and Environment Special Session (CTE-SS), Toufiq Ali of Bangladesh, on 22 November submitted his draft text to WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy for the draft Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration he is preparing for the Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC) meeting on 30 November. Differences over the approach to the environmental goods and services (EGS) negotiations continued to divide Members during informal discussions on 24 and 25 November, reflected in bracketed text in the submitted draft.

Two options on environmental goods on the table

The text welcomes the significant work undertaken in the CTE-SS and instruct Members to intensify the negotiations, "without prejudging their outcome", on all parts of Paragraph 31. The text, which was submitted to Pascal Lamy on the Chair's responsibility, recognises that "more work" has been carried out on environmental goods and services under Paragraph 31(iii) through numerous submissions by Members, discussions in the CTE-SS and informal information exchange sessions in which technical discussions were held. However, two different options on the approach to the EGS negotiations remain as bracketed text that has yet to be decided upon.

One option would see Members "complete by …2006 the work under Paragraph 31(iii) by identifying environmental goods for the reduction or, as appropriate, elimination of tariffs and non-tariff barriers in this area". This option is supported by countries who favour the so-called 'list' approach, which consists of listing goods earmarked for liberalisation (see Bridges Trade BioRes, 11 November 2005).

Another option instructs Members to continue work under 31(iii) by "developing a common understanding of the different approaches to the negotiations with the objective of reducing or, as appropriate, eliminating tariff and non-tariff barriers to environmental goods and services, in a manner that enhances the mutual supportiveness of trade and environment and takes fully into account the interests of developing countries". This option is supported primarily by developing countries who would like to keep the approach to the negotiations as flexible as possible for now. They feel that the lists submitted so far only contain goods of export interest to rich nations.

After discussions in earlier consultations did not resolve disagreement on a reference to the link between outcomes from CTE negotiations on EGS and work in other negotiating committees, such as the one on non-agricultural market access (NAMA), the text sent to the Director-General does not include any references to other negotiating bodies. Developing countries, Australia and South Africa also opposed New Zealand's suggestion at the meeting to add a sentence that acknowledged the ongoing negotiations on environmental services in the Committee on Trade in Services in Special Session (CTS-SS).

Weak recognition of talks on MEA-WTO relationship

The text submitted to the TNC also acknowledges the progress made under Paragraph 31(i) to clarify the relationship between WTO rules and specific trade obligations set out in multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs). In addition, it recognises work undertaken under paragraph 31(ii) towards developing effective procedures for regular exchange of information between MEA Secretariats and the relevant WTO committees, and criteria for the granting of observer status. The Chair also inserted a footnote at the meeting saying that some delegations want to see additional language with specific instructions from Ministers in this paragraph, in a reference to EC and Canada moves to include more ambitious language on the two negotiating items. The EC wanted to insert bracketed text instructing Members to move into text-based negotiations on Paragraph 31(i), while Canada, supported by New Zealand, Switzerland, Mexico and Argentina, proposed a compromise phrase to "move to more substantive negotiations in these areas".

A number of negotiating group Chairs have provided similar draft reports to WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy, who is expected to provide a first draft of the full ministerial text on 25 November. This text is set to be discussed in the Trade Negotiations Committee on 30 November, which will be followed by a meeting of the General Council from 1-2 December.

To access the draft text, visit http://www.ictsd.org/ministerial/hongkong/docs/05-11_24_trade_environment_draft_text.pdf

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