Implementing and monitoring PPMs

One of the questions is how can WTO Members track NPR-PPMs on products produced outside their territory, particularly if the carbon values are not detectable in the final commercial product. In this context, how can a country contest harmful emissions produced during the product’s manufacture in another country? This underlying question is perhaps the most important legal issue as the vast majority of carbon emissions related to a product are associated with its production and transportation to the point of sale.

The Process and Production Methods (PPMs) issue is at the heart of research on border tax adjustment and on tariff protection favouring clean technologies (CITEL). Whether members of the WTO should be allowed to differentiate among different products on the basis of production methods within the like product analysis or whether this depends upon the invocation of exceptions is dealt with in these projects. Based upon results, this project turns to the issue as to how PPMs can and should be implemented. It calls for a host of complex issues relating to extraterritorial controls, inspection and monitoring of production processes. The project engages in comparative studies on comparable constellations of inspections undertaken by authorities abroad. It examines the possibility to rely upon voluntary declarations of product characteristics, mutual recognition, administrative and legal assistance. The project will sketch out a legal framework addressing the management of PPM administration and monitoring in international law.