WTO negotiations and EGS: sectoral initiative climate change

The EAI approach to negotiating environmental goods and environments in the WTO, proposed by Cottier and Baracol (UNCTAD, 2009), aims to offer an alternative and more viable approach to linking trade negotiations and climate change mitigation policies. It builds upon the win–win philosophy entailed in many facets of the Doha Development Agenda.

This project aims to develop in full the EAI approach, in particular addressing modality-related issues and gaps in the negotiating proposals on the table: non-tariff barriers, technology transfer, and special and differential treatment. The resulting enabling framework must cover these areas, as mandated in the DDA. These are also crucial to engaging developing countries' further interest in liberalization commitments, as these areas, especially as they apply to EGS, are often not addressed with sufficient clarity in existing WTO agreement. Supplementary or special provisions may therefore need to be elaborated and linkages among existing provisions established. The project will present an example of how the EAI approach can apply to climate mitigation. The enabling framework will be highlighted because of the directional issues associated with climate mitigation technologies, at least in the short to medium-term, as they will flow from the developed to the developing countries. An examination of how the enabling framework may also benefit South-South trade in climate-mitigation related goods and services, which is a recent trend, will also be performed.