Nexus between climate and trade: Approach of WTO
Monday, 1 February 2010
FE Report
International Chamber of Commerce-Bangladesh (ICCB) has put a thrust on united efforts to tackle the challenges created due to climate change and also making the WTO more effective.
"There is still time for countries to act together and delay, or even reverse, the process of climate change; all must contribute," an editorial of the latest News Bulletin of ICCB released Sunday said.
It said with climate change of barely a few degrees, there will need to be fundamental changes to life on this planet, as we know it today. Countries will go under the sea, massive population will become climate refugees, and the entire production process will require adjustment. A global response to the crisis is an imperative, and should be our top priority on the international agenda. Perhaps
"The year 2009 will go down in history as a moment of great global insecurity; millions of citizens have lost their jobs, many more have seen their savings evaporated, and much of the development gains of the last decades have vanished. However, at the same time, we saw nations coming together as never before," the ICCB said.
The world was united to find a response to the global economic crisis. The multilateral trading system has also been tested; it has stood firm and showed its value. Completion of the Doha Round, while protecting the interests of the vulnerable, is vital to sustain meaningful multilateralism. Given goodwill and imagination, we should simultaneously be able to devise means to help the environment.
Though WTO is not an environment agency, in the preamble of the Marrakech Agreement that established the WTO, sustainable development, the protection and preservation of the environment are recognized as fundamental goals of the WTO. As we learn more about ways of preserving the environment, we must devise ways in the WTO rules to help protect it.
If trade measures can help combat climate change, there is no doubt that a multilateral agreement on such measures may be helpful. During the Copenhagen Conference, several delegations made specific reference to trade measures as a means to achieving broader environmental ends.
The Doha Round of trade negotiations contain specific negotiating mandates relating to environmental goods and services. The basic idea is to devise ways of liberalizing trade in environmental goods and services, with the objective of helping the environment. Not much progress has been achieved in those negotiations. Perhaps the negotiators in the WTO are taking a mercantilist approach, and are seeking to advance their respective commercial interests. They must ignore their commercial interests, and concentrate on what will collectively help common environmental concerns, particularly in matters of climate change.
The 7th Ministerial Meeting of the WTO took place amid the changed economic conditions of global recession. While the multilateral trading system has weathered the storm, the process of responding to the crisis revealed that the WTO could be made more effective, by broadening its functions, to assume greater responsibility in the global trading system. When the Ministers and Senior Officials from the 153 members gathered in the WTO on November 30, Director-General Pascal Lamy stated that the single largest adjustment that WTO Members need to make is to conclude the Doha Round successfully, and soon.
International Chamber of Commerce-Bangladesh (ICCB) has put a thrust on united efforts to tackle the challenges created due to climate change and also making the WTO more effective.
"There is still time for countries to act together and delay, or even reverse, the process of climate change; all must contribute," an editorial of the latest News Bulletin of ICCB released Sunday said.
It said with climate change of barely a few degrees, there will need to be fundamental changes to life on this planet, as we know it today. Countries will go under the sea, massive population will become climate refugees, and the entire production process will require adjustment. A global response to the crisis is an imperative, and should be our top priority on the international agenda. Perhaps
"The year 2009 will go down in history as a moment of great global insecurity; millions of citizens have lost their jobs, many more have seen their savings evaporated, and much of the development gains of the last decades have vanished. However, at the same time, we saw nations coming together as never before," the ICCB said.
The world was united to find a response to the global economic crisis. The multilateral trading system has also been tested; it has stood firm and showed its value. Completion of the Doha Round, while protecting the interests of the vulnerable, is vital to sustain meaningful multilateralism. Given goodwill and imagination, we should simultaneously be able to devise means to help the environment.
Though WTO is not an environment agency, in the preamble of the Marrakech Agreement that established the WTO, sustainable development, the protection and preservation of the environment are recognized as fundamental goals of the WTO. As we learn more about ways of preserving the environment, we must devise ways in the WTO rules to help protect it.
If trade measures can help combat climate change, there is no doubt that a multilateral agreement on such measures may be helpful. During the Copenhagen Conference, several delegations made specific reference to trade measures as a means to achieving broader environmental ends.
The Doha Round of trade negotiations contain specific negotiating mandates relating to environmental goods and services. The basic idea is to devise ways of liberalizing trade in environmental goods and services, with the objective of helping the environment. Not much progress has been achieved in those negotiations. Perhaps the negotiators in the WTO are taking a mercantilist approach, and are seeking to advance their respective commercial interests. They must ignore their commercial interests, and concentrate on what will collectively help common environmental concerns, particularly in matters of climate change.
The 7th Ministerial Meeting of the WTO took place amid the changed economic conditions of global recession. While the multilateral trading system has weathered the storm, the process of responding to the crisis revealed that the WTO could be made more effective, by broadening its functions, to assume greater responsibility in the global trading system. When the Ministers and Senior Officials from the 153 members gathered in the WTO on November 30, Director-General Pascal Lamy stated that the single largest adjustment that WTO Members need to make is to conclude the Doha Round successfully, and soon.