Brussels, 05/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 4 June, the Trade Commissioner, Cecilia Malmstrom, said that she hoped that the party countries to the multilateral negotiations on the sidelines of the WTO for an agreement on the liberalisation of environmental goods ('green products' initiative) will be able to agree on a first joint list of products on which tariffs will be removed, after the summer break.
“We are now entering a key phase of the negotiations. Countries have made their proposals and we are now discussing those proposals between us. The aim is for the Chair to make a first common proposal after the summer. When we come back in September we will be into the real political process, leading up to the WTO's ministerial conference in Nairobi in December”, Malmstrom explained, at a round table organised by the Commission on the green products agreement (see EUROPE 11328).
The purpose of this round table was for the EU to gather comments from a broad range of experts regarding the forthcoming round of negotiations, to be held in Geneva from 15 to 19 June.
The negotiations on the liberalisation of trade and environmental products entered their second phase during the sixth round of talks in early May, when the list of environmental products to be included in the agreement was finalised. A list of products covering ten categories of environmental products has been developed over the last five negotiation rounds.
The talks focus on products, services and technologies which contribute to green growth, environmental protection, climate action and sustainable development, such as products and technologies for the production of renewable energy and energy efficiency, water treatment, waste management, air pollution control, and so on. A further aim is to ensure that the list of liberalised products will be easy for the customs services and industry to implement.
Following a commitment made in 2012 by the Asia-Pacific cooperation forum (APEC) to reduce customs duty on 54 environmental products, the EU and 13 other member countries of the WTO (Australia, Canada, China, South Korea, Costa Rica, the United States, Hong Kong, Japan, Norway, New Zealand, Switzerland, Singapore and Taiwan) launched this initiative in July 2014. Since then, they have been joined by Iceland, Israel and Turkey.
First and foremost, the negotiations focus on goods, but the aim is to create a living agreement, which will evolve on the basis of future needs and, eventually, tackle other obstacles to the trade in environmental goods and services, such as non-tariff barriers, the requirements of local content and restrictions on investment.
At the moment, around 40 members of the WTO have opted to take part in the talks. However, once a critical mass of member countries of the organisation has been reached to seal an agreement, the advantages of this multilateral initiative will apply to all members of the WTO under the most favoured nation principle. Ideally, the agreement will be part of the WTO package of agreements, so that the other members of the organisation can open up their own markets. (Emmanuel Hagry)