ENVIRONMENTAL GOODS

Submission by New Zealand

Paragraph 31 (iii)

            The following communication, dated 22 May 2005, is being circulated at the request of the Delegation of New Zealand.

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I.                   Introduction

1.                  The eleventh meeting of the Committee on Trade and Environment in Special Session (CTESS) confirmed that there is "a general view that as a potential outcome for the [Hong Kong Ministerial] Conference, delegations could prepare a list of environmental goods."[1]  Moreover, there continues to be a widely shared view that the CTESS should undertake the development of the list while not prejudging the responsibility of the Negotiating Group on Market Access (NGMA) for negotiating the modalities for liberalization of such goods in accordance with the Doha mandate.[2]  Paragraph 17 of the NAMA Framework which Members agreed in July 2004[3] encourages the Negotiating Group on Market Access to work closely with the Committee on Trade and Environment in Special Session to address the issue of non-agricultural environmental goods.  The current submission, combined with New Zealand’s earlier proposal on the same subject of 9 February 2005[4], seeks to respond to that guidance.

II.                Implementing "Defining by Doing"

2.                  New Zealand’s submission of 9 February suggested that, instead of seeking to define environmental goods through a process of theoretical and analytical exchanges, a more practical "defining by doing" approach may be useful.  Thus, rather than formally negotiating an agreed definition of environmental goods, Members would proceed directly to prepare their own lists of environmental goods for discussion.  In developing and preparing these lists, New Zealand proposed the application of one or other "reference points" as a way of initiating a discussion about the environmental credentials of a specific good.  Those reference points proposed by New Zealand were the OECD’s[5] definition of environmental industries;  APEC’s conceptualization[6] of environmental goods;  and approaches to environmental goods agreed through high quality and comprehensive regional or bilateral Free Trade Agreements.

3.                  Regardless of which reference points are used, New Zealand considers it important that any item on a list of environmental goods tabled at the WTO has a reference point attached to it.  In this way an abbreviated explanation is provided as to why a specific product has been included.  The reference point approach therefore provides a screening mechanism designed to ensure that products proposed for inclusion on any agreed list of environmental products meet a basic threshold. 

4.                  It is important to reiterate that even when a product has the requisite reference point, this simply means that a discussion can be initiated on whether the product should be included on any agreed WTO list of environmental goods.  In short, the use of a reference point does not automatically confer environmental goods status for the purpose of the establishment of a list through the CTESS process.