Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström and outgoing US Trade Representative Mike Froman will jointly chair a ministerial meeting in Geneva on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 December which they hope will be decisive for attempts to conclude plurilateral negotiations with 15 other countries that have been continuing on the side-lines of the WTO since the start of 2014 on an agreement on liberalising trade in environmental goods (EGA).
The EGA aims to remove tariffs on hundreds of products and technologies that protect the environment and contribute to the fight against climate change, the global market for which is estimated to be worth $1,000 billion. The countries involved represent over 90% of world trade in green goods. The EGA would see global CO2 emissions fall by 10% by 2030.
“I sincerely hope that the participating members will live up to their expressed commitments to reach a deal. If these negotiations are to succeed, all countries will now need to demonstrate flexibility and will to compromise. Making trade in environmentally friendly technologies cheaper is a key step on the way towards reaching the targets set in the Paris agreement on climate”, Malmström said before leaving for Geneva.
The list of goods covered, which exceeded 600 products at the start of the negotiations, has been reduced to close to 300. The agreement is expected to cover a range of green products, such as renewable energy and energy-saving technologies, waste handling and recycling systems and water treatment and air pollution control devices.
This weekend, in Geneva, the ministers of the participating countries will have to agree on a package, taking into account the wants of each party with regard to products to be added to or removed from the list. (see EUROPE 11680).
Following on from the 2012 commitment by the Asia-Pacific cooperation forum (APEC) to reduce customs duties on 54 green goods, the EU and 13 countries – Australia, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Hong Kong, Japan, Norway, New Zealand, South Korea, Switzerland, Singapore, Taiwan and United States – opened EGA talks in July 2014. They have been joined since by Iceland, Israel and Turkey. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)