EABC Abstracts | March 29, 2002
At a special session of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Committee on Trade and Environment last week, the European Union (EU) circulated a controversial paper outlining its initial thoughts on the relationship between WTO rules and multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs). This prompted other countries, including the United States, to accuse the EU of wanting to broaden the WTO negotiating mandate on trade and the environment agreed to in Doha. Specifically, the EU paper calls for clarification of specific trade obligations under WTO rules with respect to MEAs. Australia, Malaysia and a number of other countries criticized the EU proposal, claiming it seeks to expand the WTO's coverage of environmental measures and raises the possibility of discussion over whether countries could impose trade restrictions under environmental agreements against countries not party to these agreements. The US expressed concerns that the EU's paper "could be interpreted to advocate a scope for negotiations that goes well beyond the mandate set forth in paragraph 31(1) of the [Doha] Declaration."
At issue are EU efforts to spell out WTO rules on trade and the environment in a way that ensures that national measures taken under MEAs will not be regarded as violations of WTO rules. Some view the EU efforts as testing the limits of the negotiating mandate agreed to in Doha for which agreements and obligations under MEAs would be discussed and how the rights of countries not party to the MEAs would be affected. The US said that they "would not want to do anything in the WTO that weakens governments' ability to take legitimate, WTO-consistent environmental protection measures," adding that "at the same time, it is not clear to us why any and all measures related to MEAs should be excused from the requirements of Article XX." Article XX of the GATT Agreement mandates that measures such as MEAs must be non-discriminatory and must not create new trade barriers. Despite initial opposition from the US, the EU was successful in securing talks between existing WTO rules and MEAs in the negotiating mandate in Doha. The US insisted, however, that the committee must ensure that environmental measure not impact negatively on market access, particularly for developing countries. US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick made clear at the time that countries should not use MEAs as tools to restrict US trade, and that the negotiations should focus on reducing or eliminating trade barriers in environmental goods and services.EABC Abstracts:
