Brussels, 09/02/2007 (Agence Europe) - Addressing energy experts at the Oslo Military Society in Oslo, Norway, on Friday, EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson renewed his call for global solutions to the twin challenges of climate change and energy security. 'Countries cannot resolve either of these issues acting alone,' he explained. In Oslo, the Commissioner again called for international or regional rules on energy trade, energy products and services and investment (see EUROPE 9311). 'We trade energy,' Mandelson argued, 'but we don't trade it like any other good or service. The GATT international trading system was conceived to meet the interests of traders in goods. But energy is not just a good, it is a need, and a finite one, controlled by a small number of exporters… energy trade can be a source of geopolitical tensions and insecurity because it effectively takes place in an international legal vacuum… the more we turn energy into a political commodity as well as a commercial one, the more volatile the system becomes.' Peter Mandelson argued that 'clearer' bilateral, regional or international rules would improve predictability for the transit and supply of energy, open the door for producer and consumer countries to invest in one another and therefore deepen interdependence and help channel domestic and foreign capital for exploration and extraction. 'None of this,' he argued, 'would deny the legitimate right of producers to benefit from oil and gas reserves.' The EU Trade Commissioner renewed his call for a zero tariff on green goods (see EUROPE 9330) under the Doha Trade Round to facilitate international trade in green technologies and services. (eh)