8:30 PM Oct 1, 1996

TRADE, ENVIRONMENT NEED COHERENCE

Geneva, October 1 (TWN/Roberto Bissio) - Trade ministers and Environment ministers have been challenged by the heads of two UN bodies to introduce coherence in their policies in order to make sustainable development possible.

A High-level Round Table on Trade, Environment and Sustainable Development was inaugurated here Monday by Elizabeth Dowdeswell, executive director of UNEP, and Rubens Ricupero, Secretary-General of UNCTAD. The meeting, sponsored by Switzerland and Norway, ends today.

Dowdeswell recalled that in 1991-1992 there was fear "that trade rules would destroy environmental policy, and that environmental policy would undermine the multilateral trading system" and "overwhelm" the GATT-WTO with disputes. But that had not happened.

While there was not full agreement among trade, environment and development agendas, they were talking to one another, and beginning to understand respective vocabularies, constituencies, procedures, policies and concerns and there was an "actively supportive approach"

But the current debate had to some extent been locked within narrow, although necessary, analyses of legal compatibility. But there was need for policy coherence, which was "far more than avoidance of legal incoherence... (and) means a commitment by governments to say and do the same thing in different fora.

Ricupero shared Dowdeswell's optimistic view and said "there is now less conflict between trade and environment communities than at the time when the current debate started".

From UNCTAD's point of view, Ricupero said, the purpose of the meeting was precisely to support coordination at the national level among and between ministries and trade, environment and developmental communities at the international level.

With more direct words, Dowdeswell said that "policy coherence means a commitment by governments to say and do the same thing in different fora". Ricupero added that "integrating trade and environment policies is not and end in itself, but a means to achieve sustainable development".

Both speakers referred to the work of the WTO Committee on Trade and Environment, which is preparing a report on the issue to be submitted to the WTO ministerial meeting in Singapore next December.

UNEP's director said that "the current debate has to some extent been locked within narrow, although necessary analyses of legal compatibility" between WTO trade rules and the multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs).

UNCTAD's secretary-general saw the debate as tending to "focus on the use or non-use of trade measures to achieve environmental purposes" and argued for "emphasizing issues such as the economic and developmental effects that may arise from the use of trade measures" and "to consider the whole package of measures which can be used for achieving environmental objectives".

Those measures include, according to Dowdeswell, "the exchange of information, technical assistance, the commitment to technology transfer, new and additional financing, dispute resolution mechanisms". She argued against trade measures "placing restrictions on the emerging agenda of MEAs but rather to maintain flexibility".

This was seen as a clear reference to the current debate in the CTE.

In what appeared to some difference in views, Ricupero said that "environmental problems do not normally originate in trade; and their resolution generally does not require a recourse to trade measures".

He recalled his own experience as minister of environment in Brazil to conclude that "many of the priority issues are not directly dealt by the WTO and have to do with poverty alleviation, access to and transfer of technology and finance, the building of infrastructure, capacity-building and other related positive measures".

Both speakers strongly condemned unilateralism and emphasized multilateralism and dispute avoidance. Both supported an open international trading system.

But Dowdeswell noted that many countries "have been left behind" by globalization and liberalization "and have unsurmountable difficulties in participating, adjusting and reaping the benefits of a globalized economy".

They also highlighted the role of NGOs.

"At UNCTAD we have established close links with the civil society", said Ricupero. "NGOs participate in our intergovernmental work and the secretariat is closely involved in numerous activities of academic institutions and NGOs". Dowdeswell expressed the "need to engage the broad experience of international civil society, including NGOs", since "there is a wealth and diversity of views -- from the Third World Network and CIEL to WWF and IUCN."