ASIAN EXPERTS TARGET KEY REGIONAL TRADE & ENVIRONMENT PRIORITIES

At a 14-15 January consultation in Sri Lanka, 20 regional experts in trade and environment met to articulate the central issues of concern to South and Southeast Asia on environment in the WTO. They looked not only at the major regional priorities in the ongoing Doha round negotiations, but also envisioned elements of a proactive trade-environment agenda for developing countries in the WTO for the future. The consultation formed part of a project in which developing countries bring forward their own environmental concerns as these relate to the multilateral trading system.

At the Sri Lanka consultation -- which included a diverse range of academics, non-governmental organisations, and representatives from regional capitals and Geneva-based trade missions -- participants identified four broad priority areas for the region in terms of trade and environment at the WTO: agriculture; environmental measures; intellectual property rights, risk and precaution; and environmental goods and services. In addition to listing the key areas of concern in each of these, the participants identified knowledge gaps where further research, analysis and capacity building were essential. Further cross-cutting themes they focused on included special and differential treatment, technology transfer, and operationalising trade-environment links at the bilateral and regional levels.

In terms of specific examples, participants highlighted the fact that the impacts of northern agricultural subsidies on both price of commodities and local environments in developing countries were poorly understood, as was the impact of developing countries' own subsidies on domestic agriculture. On environmental measures, participants identified the need for a compendium of all imposed environmental standards, the necessity for a means to keep updated on emerging ones, and the importance of developing country participation in international standard-setting bodies.

Dr. Simon Tay (Singapore National University) presented a paper at the meeting that stressed the urgent need for Southern countries to advance a positive agenda on trade and environment. Dr. Tay argued that post-Cancun, focus would, and should, shift to regional and bilateral levels, where links and experience could be drawn upwards from the regions to the multilateral processes at the WTO. For instance, talks on harmonisation of standards in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and in the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA -- scheduled for 2006) could lend these countries experience that they could use to their advantage in related discussions with other WTO Members.

The informal deliberations in Sri Lanka formed part of the 'Southern Agenda' project. Now in its second phase, this is an ongoing initiative that aims to assist developing countries in bringing forward their own environmental concerns as these relate to the multilateral trading system. The Southern Agenda is a partnership between ICTSD, the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and a group of regional NGOs (the RING) active in the area of sustainable development. The Sri Lanka meeting was the third in a series of six such meetings that aim to reflect the diversity of perspectives on trade and environment from across Asia, Africa and Latin America. Two were held in West Africa and South America in 2003, respectively. The regional meetings are supplemented with ongoing Geneva-based consultations with developing country trade negotiators, who provide valuable input on the needs, concerns and priorities of their governments in the area of trade and environment.

Further information, together with background papers and supporting documents, is available at http://www.ictsd.org/issarea/environment/partnerships/sagenda/index.htm.

ICTSD reporting.