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News   

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Background

• Introduction
• History
• WTO rules and environmental policies
  

  Measures aimed at protecting the environment come in various shapes and forms. Under WTO rules, as confirmed by WTO jurisprudence, members can adopt trade-related measures aimed at protecting the environment, subject to certain specified conditions.

  • Introduction
  • Key GATT disciplines
  • GATT exceptions
  • Other relevant WTO texts
  • Environment-related disputes

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Work in the WTO   

Trade and Environment Committee

The Trade and Environment Committee is the standing forum dedicated to dialogue between governments on the impact of trade policies on the environment, and of environment policies on trade. Created in 1995, the Committee has followed a comprehensive work programme.

Under the Doha Development Agenda, the regular committee is also looking at the effects of environmental measures on market access, the intellectual property agreement and biodiversity, and labelling for environmental purposes.

• Cooperation with Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs)
• Thematic sessions
• Trade and Environment Weeks

Committee in special session

Ministers agreed to negotiate on trade and the environment, with the overarching objective of enhancing the mutual support of trade and environmental policies. To this end, the Committee on Trade and Environment was created.

Environmental Initiatives

• Plastics pollution and environmentally sustainable plastics trade
• Trade and environmental sustainability
• Fossil fuel subsidy reform

Environmental Goods Agreement

Separately, eighteen participants representing 46 WTO members are negotiating an Environmental Goods Agreement

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Topical issues    

Trade and Climate Change

The issue of climate change, per se, is not part of the WTO's ongoing work programme and there are no WTO rules specific to climate change. However, the WTO is relevant because climate change measures and policies intersect with international trade in a number of different ways.

Steel Standards Principles

The Principles recognize that the iron and steel sector accounts for approximately 8% of annual global greenhouse gas emissions and that these emissions will need to be reduced by at least 90% for the sector to play a credible role in achieving climate targets. They call for establishing common methodologies on measuring greenhouse gas emissions within the iron and steel sector in order to accelerate the transition to near-zero emissions.

UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) back to top

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a set of 17 goals and 169 targets that members of the United Nations have endorsed as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.