Environmental Goods Agreement (EGA) negotiations

Civil Society Dialogue meeting

13 September 2016

Disclaimer: All images and photographs in this presentation are used purely for purposes of demonstration and do not in any way commit any of the companies shown to, or imply their approval of, any of the proposed policies, actions or measures featured.

Steps leading to the launch of EGA

WTO DDA Ministerial Declaration, 2001:

Para 31(iii) “ the reduction or, as appropriate, elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers to environmental goods and services.”

Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), 2012: political commitment to reduce applied tariffs on 54 green goods to 5 per cent or less by the end of 2015;

Davos World Economic Forum statement:

24 January 2014

Launch of the Environmental Goods Agreement negotiations: July 2014

Key elements

Objective: Enhance trade in environmental goods contributing to environmental protection, in particular to combatting climate change, to accelerate uptake of environmental goods

1) Full elimination of tariffs

On a broad list of environmental goods, building on the APEC list of 54 goods

2) "living agreement"

Revision clause to update product list (technology changes)

Address other issues in the sector (NTBs, services) through a work programme

3) MFN-based agreement once critical mass achieved

17 WTO Members currently..

EU, US, China, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Switzerland, Norway, Korea, Israel, Iceland, Japan, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong China, Singapore, Costa Rica, Turkey

..but EGA is open

EGA negotiations are open to any WTO Member sharing similar level of ambition

benefits for both industrialized and developing countries

Outreach e.g. Chile, Mexico, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Morocco, Tunisia, Brazil, Pakistan

EGA Members

EGA membership

Solar technologies

HS 280461 HS 381800 HS 854140

HS 854140

Wind Turbine Gearboxes

HS 8428.33 waste conveyors

HS 8428.90 material handler

HS 8462.91 shredders, balers, compactors for waste metals

HS 8474.10, HS 8474.39, HS 8474.90 - machinery for sorting, washing mineral substances, and parts

HS 8505.90 magnetic pulley

HS 392510 waste containers

Where are we now?

● 15 rounds since the launch of the negotiations in July 2014

last round: July 2016; next: week of 19th September

● Ministerial level discussions - June 2016 (OECD) and July 2016 (G20)

● "Landing zones" - 15th EGA round in July

● G20 Leaders' Summit, September 2016 a key milestone :

"G20 Environmental Goods Agreement (EGA) participants welcome the landing zone achieved in the WTO EGA negotiations, and reaffirm their aim to redouble efforts to bridge remaining gaps and conclude an ambitious, future-oriented EGA that seeks to eliminate tariffs on a broad range of environmental goods by the end of 2016, after finding effective ways to address the core concerns of participants."

Outstanding issues

● Chair's list retained 304 out of 650 products nominated under 10 environmental product categories by EGA members

● Key issues:

product coverage (commercial interest/environmental credibility),

staging,

critical mass,

future work programme on non-tariff barriers and services

● Need for continued outreach: global value chain opportunities

Next steps

• 16th EGA negotiating round: 19-23 September

• 17th EGA round: 17-21 October

• informal EGA Ministerial: 22 October

• 18th EGA round: 27 November – 1 December

• concluding EGA Ministerial: 3-4 December

Sustainability Impact Assessment on EGA

• commissioned by the European Commission, and conducted by an independent contractor, published in April 2016

• Economic impacts: a positive impact in volumes of global trade flows of EGs and also on the price of energy, thus making clean technologies more cost competitive

• Environmental impacts: facilitating the implementation of national environmental policies and multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs), helps reducing CO2 emissions

• Social impacts: help to meet Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

• Human rights impacts

For more info: DG TRADE website

http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/press/index.cfm?id=1116

http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/press/index.cfm?id=1116http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/press/index.cfm?id=1116