From Oct 29 to Nov 4, 2015, delegates from 17 WTO member-states met in Geneva, Switzerland, for the tenth round of negotiations on the Environmental Goods Agreement (EGA). Although Malaysia is not a party to the negotiations, it is worthwhile to take a look at the process and consider the potential implications of the EGA on world trade.
The EGA is a plurilateral agreement that aims at removing barriers to trade in environmental or ‘green’ goods, in a broader effort to protect the environment and mitigate climate change.
In the long term, the EGA is envisaged as a ‘living agreement’ that will expand to add new products in response to changes in technology and eventually address environmental services and non-tariff barriers to trade. However, it currently relates only to environmental goods.
The EGA was launched in July 2014 by 14 WTO member-states – Australia, Canada, China, Costa Rica, the EU, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Switzerland, Chinese Taipei and the US. The negotiating parties set out to build on a list of 54 environmental goods on which members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) had committed to reduce import tariffs in 2012.
Over the course of numerous negotiating rounds, the parties established and reviewed the environmental goods categories (energy and resource efficiency, air pollution control, renewable energy equipment, solid and hazardous waste management, etc) and nominated relevant products for inclusion. Three more member-states (Israel, Iceland and Turkey) joined the negotiations during this period.
In more recent rounds, the negotiating parties focused on product-by-product discussion to refine and secure a list outlined in August 2015. Reportedly, in bilateral and plenary sessions, delegates analysed over 1,000 products and examined over 450 possible tariff lines for inclusion.
The discussions from Oct 29 to Nov 4, 2015 resulted in a ‘draft final list’ of potential products whose tariffs will be lowered under the EGA. The Chair is said to have circulated the list in advance of the eleventh round of negotiations, from Nov 30 to Dec 4, 2015, for review by all 17 parties.
