Brussels, 17/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - The seventh round of talks for a plurilateral environmental goods agreement (EGA) is taking place in Geneva from 15-22 June on the sidelines of the WTO, under Australia's presidency.
The talks are being continued on around 650 pre-selected products (or “nominated” products in the negotiation jargon), which are divided into the ten categories that were defined during the first five rounds of talks: - solid and hazardous waste management; - water waste management and water treatment; - air pollution control; - renewable energy generation; - energy efficiency; - environmental remediation and clean-up; - noise and vibration abatement; - environmental monitoring and analysis; - environmentally preferable products; - and resource efficiency.
The objective of the 17 countries taking part in the EGA talks is to agree on a list of environmental products on which to remove customs duties. The negotiators' points of view are increasingly converging in some areas (like that of renewable energy) - although other areas need further discussion, the European Commission states in a note of 16 June. The negotiations are guided by the principle of “environmental credibility” - products are selected taking into account the end for which they are used rather than their production methods. The negotiators also want to ensure that the list of liberalised products will be easy for customs officials and industry to implement.
The EU supports an ambitious agreement that contributes to environmental protection - clean water, air, soil, good waste management and lower greenhouse gas emissions - as well as jobs and growth. Furthermore, the EU is committed to achieving substantial results in the negotiations by the end of 2015, ahead of two crucial deadlines in December - the UN climate conference (COP 21) in Paris, and the tenth WTO ministerial conference in Nairobi.
During this seventh round of EGA talks, the EU wants to promote a high level of ambition for removing duties on environmental technologies. It also wants to promote the idea of an agreement that will later facilitate the liberalisation of services for companies linked to trade in green goods, that will contain a revision mechanism, and that will cover non-tariff barriers - as European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström stated at a round table discussion on 3 June (see EUROPE 11328 and 11329).
Following a commitment taken by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in 2012 to reduce customs duties on 54 green goods, the EU and 13 other WTO countries (Australia, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Switzerland, Singapore, Taiwan and the US) launched this negotiation in July 2014. They have since been joined by Iceland, Israel and Turkey. Once a critical mass of WTO member countries is reached in order to obtain an agreement, the advantages of this plurilateral initiative will be applied to all WTO members according to the most favoured nation (MFN) principle. Ideally, the agreement will be part of the WTO package of agreements so that other members of the organisation might open up their own markets. (Emmanuel Hagry)