UNCTAD COMMISSION STRESS ON POSITIVE MEASURES

10:16 AM Feb 24, 1997

UNCTAD COMMISSION STRESS ON POSITIVE MEASURES
Geneva 24 (Chakravarthi Raghavan) -- The urgent need for renewed efforts at national and international levels to make trade and environment policies mutually supportive, and to promote sustainable development through positive measures, including economic incentives, has been stressed by the UNCTAD Commission on Trade in Goods and Services in a message to the UN Commission on Sustainable Development.

The UN-CSD is holding its fifth session in April in New York, to undertake the first five-year review of progress achieved in the implementation of Agenda 21 -- programme and plan of action adopted at the UNCED 'Earth Summit' held at Rio de Janeiro in June 1992.

The CSD's deliberations and recommendations will lead into the special session of the UN General Assembly (in June) to review progress on Agenda 21 implementation.

Besides the message to the CSD in New York, the UNCTAD Commission, chaired by Amb. Daniel Bernard of France, which concluded Friday a 3-day meeting, devoted to Environment and Trade issues, adopted an agreed conclusions on the work programme and heard a Chairman's summary.

Under the agreed conclusions, the Commission decided to convene two expert meetings: one meeting to examine positive measures, including innovative approaches in them, in context of sustainable development, particularly in meeting the objectives of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs); and a second meeting to examine the operation, and possible trade and investment impacts, of environmental management standards, particularly the ISO 14000 series, on developing countries and the identification of possible opportunities and needs in this context.

The UN has designated UNCTAD as the focal point for dealing with trade and related issues of development and as the task manager on trade, environment and sustainable development.

In the message to the UN-CSD, the UNCTAD Commission welcomed the first five year review of progress in implementation of Agenda 21, and said that the conclusion of the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations has furthered the process of trade liberalization, opening up new opportunities for sustainable development and growth.

"However," the UNCTAD message said, "marginalization remains a risk for developing countries, especially the Least Developed Countries, and could hamper their benefiting from the resources that trade may generate for enhancing sustainable development.

The UNCTAD Commission recalled the strong commitment at Rio for a global partnership for sustainable development and stressed "the urgent need for renewed efforts at both national and international levels to make trade and environmental policies mutually supportive and, more generally, to promote sustainable development, including by designing and implementing positive measures and by providing effective economic incentives."

As requested by UNCED, UNCTAD has actively sought to play effectively its special role in promoting integration of trade, environment and development and in particular has taken appropriate steps to implement the recommendations of the CSD, the message said.

UNCTAD, the message added, looks forward to a substantive outcome of the Special Session of the General Assembly and, as a focal point within the UN on these questions and as the task manager for trade, environment and sustainable development, UNCTAD is ready to meet the challenges of a revitalized agenda on trade and sustainable development.

Besides agreeing to the two expert meetings to be convened this year, the Commission also took note of the interest expressed for future expert work on

* examination of the relationships and interlinkages between tourism sector, the environment and development in developing countries;

* analysis of the role of FDI in promoting access to and transfer of environmentally sound technologies to developing countries; and

* innovative instruments to improve the export possibilities for commodities produced in a sustainable way, especially from the LDCs.

In a Chairman's summary, Amb. Bernard noted that while many delegations drew attention to the environmental and development benefits likely to derive from trade liberalization, others were of the view that these benefits were not automatic and that trade liberalization should be accompanied by specific environmental policies. There was general agreement that poverty was a greater factor of environmental degradation than international trade.

The discussions showed the importance attached to positive measures -- access to markets, technology, financial resources and training etc. But opinions differed as to the content of these measures.

Certain delegations felt that the positive measures should be as binding as trade measures. Several others were of the view that positive and trade measures were not incompatible, but were among the tools for better integrating trade, environment and development. Reference was made to their implementation at national and international levels, and to the participation of developing countries in their elaboration.

The debate on eco-labelling highlighted the great importance of the concept of mutual recognition and equivalency, although certain delegations thought their implementation was still difficult.

Some delegations expressed concern that measures relating to process and production methods might be a source of obstacles to trade.

The compliance with environmental standards, some delegations felt, might entail excessive costs for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), particularly those in developing countries.

Several delegations expressed "interest" in the secretariat's "BIOTRADE" initiative, which they saw as a means of establishing a link between trade issues and environment in the sphere of biodiversity. A number of delegations hoped that consultations on the matter would continue.

Many delegations said they viewed FDI as a potential vector of technologies that were environmentally friendly and could contribute to sustainable development.

In statements at the final plenary, Bangladesh expressed its concern over the secretariat view (in the document before the committee) that SMEs "...often make a relatively large contribution to industrial pollution" and said that such a "generalized assertion" needed to be qualified on basis of realities on the ground.

There is no universal definition of SMEs, and in the LDCs they are usually micro-enterprises using indigenous technology and labour, and process materials primarily of natural origin and available locally, and such bio-degradable materials did not produce eco-hostile bye-products. The micro-enterprises in LDCs should hence be "cleared of its undeserved share of blame in the global pollution chain".

South Africa wanted UNCTAD to examine "innovative positive measures" under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The results should be fed into the UNCTAD expert meeting on positive measures. In particular, research should be on the desirability and feasibility of options such as "joint implementation" (JI) and "tradeable permits". Empirical work was also needed on energy and possibilities and consequences for developing countries.