Committee on Trade and Environment - Promoting mutual supportiveness between trade and climate change mitigation actions: carbon-related border tax adjustments - Communication from Singapore

World Trade Organization WT/CTE/W/248 30 March 2011 (11-1577) Committee on Trade and Environment Original: English Promoting Mutual Supportiveness between Trade and Climate Change Mitigation Actions: Carbon-Related Border Tax Adjustments Communication from Singapore The Ministerial Decision on Trade and Environment states that there should not be nor need be any policy contradiction between upholding and safeguarding an open, equitable and non-discriminatory multilateral trading system on the one hand and acting for the protection of the environment on the other. These two areas of policy-making are both important and they should be mutually supportive in order to promote sustainable development. Trade Policy and the WTO can and should play a role in supporting environmental protection and sustainable development. One concrete way is through the liberalisation of Environmental Goods and Services (EGS). Aside from environmental benefits, EGS liberali