WTO AND ENVIRONMENT
- November 8, 2022
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
No Comments
WTO AND ENVIRONMENT
Subject: Economy
Context:
The WTO may serve as an appropriate forum for discussions on opening up trade in environmental goods and services according to the World Trade Report 2022: Climate Change and International Trade.
Details:
- The Elimination of tariffs and reduction in Non-tariff measures on a specific subset of environmental goods would reduce carbon emissions while contributing to increase in exports and GDP in all regions.
- India and several other developing countries are not in favour:
- It could lead to tariff reduction for dual use goods-used also for non environmental purposes thus detrimental to the domestic industry
- Majority of environmental goods production takes place in developed countries.
WTO and Environment:
- The WTO also provides trade related technical assistance and capacity building to developing countries and LDCs, which can help to build climate resilient trade capacity
- Example-Aid for Trade, the Enhanced Integrated Framework and the Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDE)
About the World Trade Report
- It is published annually by the WTO.
- It aims to deepen understanding about the trends in trade, issues, and policies.
- The 2022 World Trade Report explores the complex interlinkages between climate change and international trade and how international trade and trade rules can contribute to addressing climate change.
The Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF)
The WTO-led Aid-for-Trade Initiative
The Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF)
|
The WTO-led Aid-for-Trade Initiative
- It encourages developing country governments and donors to recognize the role that trade can play in development. In particular, the initiative seeks to mobilize resources to address the trade-related constraints identified by developing and least-developed countries.
- Aid for Trade relates to the provision of a comprehensive trade package that aims to help developing countries, particularly least-developed countries, develop the trade-related skills and infrastructure for implementing the WTO agreement thereby benefiting from enhanced market access.
The Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF)
- It is a global partnership which works to strengthen food safety, animal and plant health capacity in developing countries by encouraging the use of good practices – including through digital technologies – to facilitate safe trade worldwide.
- The STDF supports developing countries to comply with international sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) requirements, as outlined in the WTO’s SPS Agreement.
- The goal is to build long-lasting SPS capacity in developing countries, contributing to sustainable economic growth, poverty reduction and food security. The STDF works to achieve this goal in two main ways:
- funding collaborative, innovative SPS capacity building projects at the national, regional and global levels
- identifying and promoting the use of good practices to develop SPS capacity.
STDF founding partners are the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, which also houses the Codex and IPPC Secretariats, the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), the World Bank Group, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the WTO.