Events & Issues
New
Delhi, 16 November 2009
Trade
Groups’ Appeal
CUT
BARRIERS ON GREEN GOODS
By Dr P K
Vasudeva
General Electric, the iconic US-based multinational technology and
services conglomerate, has called the governments to cut tariffs and other
barriers to trade in environmental goods and services in order to help combat
climate change.
The WTO members should strike an ‘environmental goods and services
agreement’ (EGSA) without waiting for a broader deal in the long-running Doha
Round of trade negotiations, according to Thaddeus Burns, GE’s senior counsel
for intellectual property and trade.
In a paper presented in October last at the conference on trade, energy,
and the environment, Burns argued that tariffs and domestic purchasing
requirements on products like wind turbines and solar panels increase the cost
of clean energy investments, undermining governments’ efforts to cut greenhouse
gas (GHG) emissions.
Liberalising trade in environmental goods and services is one of the
many issues under consideration in the Doha
negotiations. However, with a broad multilateral trade deal nowhere in sight
after nearly eight years of negotiations, Burns said, “it is time for
governments to make a firm commitment to reducing the costs they impose on
EGS.” He rejected suggestions that taking EGS liberalisation out of the
struggling negotiations would undermine the Doha Round, saying “it makes little
sense to delay action on climate-change related cost reduction.” Other business
interests, including the Washington-based National Foreign Trade Council, have
made similar appeals.
It is not without precedent in the WTO for a group of countries to agree
to cut tariffs on a particular class of goods outside the context of a trade
round. For instance, in 1997 a group of major traders enacted the Information
Technology Agreement, which cut tariffs on a wide range of products. In
principle, there is no reason why a critical mass of WTO members could not do
the same for environmental goods, a point that ICTSD and other analysts have
made for several years.
GE has an interest in seeing major markets cut tariffs on wind turbines
and other clean energy technology: it is the world’s second largest
manufacturer of wind turbines, behind Denmark’s
Vestas and ahead of Spain’s Gamesa, Germany’s
Enercon, and India’s
Suzlon. Burns’ paper noted that the majority of WTO members still levy tariffs
on wind turbines, ranging from 14 per cent in Brazil
and Mexico, to 8 percent in China and Korea,
and 2.7 and 1.3 per cent respectively in the EU and the US. Significant
tariffs also face solar panels and gas turbines: India levies duties of 15 per cent
on the former and 7.5 per cent on the latter.
Burns’ paper also pointed to non-tariff barriers that were “often even
more destructive to GHGs reduction goals and worldwide economic recovery than
traditional tariffs.” ‘Buy domestic’ requirements and other local content
restrictions in China, the US, and two
Canadian provinces were closing off opportunities to foreign suppliers. An EGSA
that addresses these non-tariff barriers would make cleaner energy technologies
cheaper, he said.
GE envisions a multi-step process for implementing an EGSA: first, a
subset of WTO members accounting for the bulk of existing trade would eliminate
tariffs on a list of products (all WTO members, not just participants, would
receive the concessions). Next, more countries could join, and coverage could
extend to more products, services, and non-tariff barriers.
The Doha Round talks on EGS liberalisation has long been blocked over
disagreements among members on which goods should be covered. And within the
framework of the round, large developing countries have jealously guarded their
freedom to choose whether to sign on to initiatives slashing tariffs across
entire industrial sectors.
This became apparent at the conference, held at the WTO headquarters,
when a senior Brazilian diplomat noted that clean-burning ethanol would deserve
to be part of an EGS deal. Ethanol, however, faces tariffs of over 40 per cent
in the EU and the US,
where ethanol producers are heavily subsidized and politically influential.
Oil, in contrast, enters duty free. “If people are serious about emissions, why
tax clean, renewable fuels while dirty, non-renewable and price-volatile oil is
admitted duty-free?” asked Flavio Damico, Brazil’s deputy ambassador to the
WTO. He observed that even measures intended to promote sustainable development
could be discriminatory.
The US
government has made proposals similar to GE’s call for an EGSA in the past. In
late 2007, just before an important UN climate conference, Washington joined hands with the EU to urge
all major economies to eliminate tariffs on a list of ‘climate-friendly’ goods
- but not ethanol. At the time, several developing countries complained
that the list did not adequately reflect products in which they had an export
interest.
Nefeterius McPherson, a spokesperson for the US
trade representative’s office, said the US “remain[ed] eager to move ahead
with negotiations to eliminate tariff barriers on climate-friendly technologies
and spur momentum on a larger WTO Doha package on environmental goods and
services.” However, she declined to comment on whether an EGS agreement should
also cut tariffs on ethanol, along with subsidies to biofuels and government
support for fossil fuel production.
A group of trade associations,
including the National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC), sent a letter to President
Obama recently urging the Administration to pursue a swift conclusion of a
comprehensive Environmental Goods and Services Agreement.
The associations wrote, “Lowering
trade barriers on green goods and services would be good for the environment
and the U.S.
economy.” Liberalizing green trade, they continued, “would help create the
green jobs that will accelerate recovery of the U.S. economy.”
While the Doha Round of WTO
negotiations is one potential forum to pursue an international agreement on
green goods and services, the associations noted, “the combined economic and
environmental benefits of an agreement warrant the exploration of alternative
or complementary efforts.”
The trade associations suggested the
Administration consider the Forum on Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)
and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as forums
to help secure interim commitments in advance of a WTO agreement.
The groups also encouraged the
President to promote the utility of lowering trade barriers on green goods and
services in international environmental forums, including the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Major Economies Forum.
The letter also underscores the importance of protecting intellectual property
rights in green technologies with respect to stimulating American innovation
and creating green jobs.
Finally, the letter expresses
concern over the lack of discussion of global trade in environmentally friendly
goods and services in the House-passed American Clean Energy and Security Act
of 2009.
“Emphasizing the importance of an
environmental goods and services agreement in domestic legislation would
enhance legislative efforts to deliver clean technologies to the developing
world. We hope that you and your Administration will work with Congress to
generate clear signals of support for lower trade barriers, which can help to
reinforce a positive message on lowering green tariffs to the international
community,” the associations concluded.
The countries both developed and developing should, therefore must
commit to reduce trade barriers on environmental goods and services in the
future Doha Round talks to save the planet.---INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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