Brussels, 13/07/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 12 July, European Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström said that during the G20 trade ministers' meeting in Shanghai on Sunday 10 July the trade ministers of the G20 countries participating in the negotiations for a plurilateral environmental goods agreement (EGA) had decided, under the impetus of the EU, to set the target date of the end of 2016 for concluding the EGA negotiations.
The EGA is aimed at liberalising trade in environmentally-friendly goods and technologies, removing customs duties on them and facilitating their trade. “The agreement would demonstrate that beyond purely economic advantages, trade can make a major contribution to broader goals and environmental challenges, such as fighting climate change”, Malmström said.
“Throughout the meeting [in Shanghai] I insisted that the G20, as a forum of the largest economies of the world, has a major responsibility in addressing these critical issues, and called on China as the current presidency of the G20 to show leadership for reaching consensus”, she added.
However, the viewpoints were “quite diverging”, Malmström said, and the final decision on the target date for concluding the negotiations was reached only at the very end of the two-day meeting, following very intense discussions between China, the EU and the US. “Now it is critical for the G20 participants to follow through and deliver on these commitments”, she added.
Malmström and her counterparts from six countries - Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and the US - had worked in close collaboration, on the sidelines of an OECD ministerial meeting on 2 June, in order to reach an agreement with all the other countries participating in the EGA talks before the G20 summit in Hangzhou on 4-5 September (EUROPE 11567).
On the technical level, the EGA negotiations continue along the path mapped out in March, after the COP 21 climate conference (EUROPE 11515). The last round of talks was held at the end of June. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)