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News   

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Trade and environment in the WTO   

• Introduction
  
  Through its goals, rules, institutions and forward-looking agenda, the WTO provides an important means of advancing international environmental goals.

• History
  
  Trade and environment, as an issue, is by no means new. The link between trade and environmental protection — both the impact of environmental policies on trade, and the impact of trade on the environment — was recognized as early as 1970. Towards the end of the Uruguay Round (1986–1994), attention was once again drawn to trade-related environmental issues, and the role of the soon-to-be-created World Trade Organization.

• Tenth Ministerial Conference: Briefing notes

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Work in the WTO   

• Regular 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.

• Negotiations

In the Doha Round, WTO members received a mandate to negotiate certain aspects of the link between trade and the environment, particularly the relationship between the WTO’s agreements and those of other agencies, and market access for environmental goods and services. These talks take place in “Special Sessions” of the Trade and Environment Committee.

• Environmental Goods Agreement

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

• Environmental Initiatives
  • Plastics pollution and environmentally sustainable plastics trade
  • Trade and environmental sustainability

WTO rules and environmental policies back to top

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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Trade and environment 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.

• Trade and green economy
  
  The WTO offers a powerful supporting framework for sustainable development and green economy. It provides an enabling environment through its objectives, institutions and monitoring of potential trade protectionism, enforcement mechanism, toolbox of rules, and growing case law in the environment area.

• 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.

• Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
  
  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.

• Co-operation with Multilateral Environmental Agreements
  The WTO Secretariat cooperates with a number of implementing bodies for Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs), following their work and providing information on WTO rules and mechanisms. The CTE also regularly receives trade-relevant information and updates from MEAs.
• MEAs Matrix
• CITES Publication
• WTO E-Learning

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Technical assistance   

WTO technical assistance on trade and the environment aims to help developing countries participate more effectively in the work of the Trade and Environment Committee and in the negotiations.