Brussels, 29/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - Ahead of the 10th round of plurilateral negotiations on the sidelines of the WTO for an Environmental Goods free trade Agreement (EGA), a coalition of stakeholders, united under the banner of the Sustainable Energy Trade Initiative (SETI) Alliance, called on participating countries on Wednesday 28 October to conclude an ambitious agreement.
The SETI Alliance has sent a petition supported by 2,500 stakeholders to the chairman of the EGA negotiations, Andrew Martin from Australia. The petition calls on the governments of the 40 WTO member countries involved in the EGA talks to commit to facilitating the conclusion of an ambitious agreement that provides for the elimination of customs duties on a wide range of green goods and technologies, and that goes beyond the trade agreements that already exist.
The SETI Alliance also argues for a “living” agreement that provides for possibly broadening its scope to include new technologies, and to cover services, non-tariff barriers, and other significant trade barriers for environmental technologies.
In addition, the SETI Alliance says it hopes for “a first significant result” no later than at the WTO's 10th ministerial conference in Nairobi on 15-18 December.
The SETI Alliance is a coalition representing the governments of Denmark, Norway and the UK, as well as the OECD, companies in the sustainable technology sector, and think tanks.
Following a commitment taken in 2012 by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum to reduce customs duties on 54 green goods, the EU and 13 other countries (Australia, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Switzerland, Singapore, Taiwan and the US) launched the EGA negotiation in July 2014. They have since been joined by Iceland, Israel and Turkey.
Their objective is to agree on a list of environmental goods on which to remove customs duties. The negotiations are guided by the principle of “environmental credibility” - goods 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 goods will be easy for customs officials and industry to implement.
Discussions are currently continuing on around 650 pre-selected goods which are divided into the ten categories that were defined at the start of the negotiations: - solid and hazardous waste management; - water waste management and water treatment; - air pollution control; - renewable energy production; - energy efficiency; - environmental remediation and clean-up; - noise and vibration abatement; - environmental monitoring and analysis; - environmentally preferable products; - and resource efficiency. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)