6:27 PM Oct 2, 1996

TRADE & ENVIRONMENT SHOULDN'T BE DIVISIVE

Geneva 1 Oct (TWN) -- Trade and Environment should not be a divisive issue, either between North and South or between economic and environmental interests and both trade liberalization and environmental protection are necessary to advance sustainable development, a High-Level Round Table Ministerial Meeting on Environment, Trade and Sustainable Development said Tuesday in agreed conclusions.

The two day meeting attended by Ministers, primarily of Environment, and high level officials from 43 countries had been co-hosted by the Executive Director of UNEP and the Secretary-General of UNCTAD.

At the end of the meeting, several developing countries initially resisted the adoption of "Agreed Conclusions", which had been drafted by the two secretariats, on the ground that they would have to refer it to their capitals for clearance. Ultimately, they allowed the 'Agreed Conclusions' to be adopted, but expressed reservations to one or the other parts. But given the nature of the meeting, it was not at all clear how these 'reservations' would be reflected nor was any explanation immediately available from key developing country participants on the reasons for the 'agreed conclusions'.

In opening remarks Monday, the co-hosts had expressed warm appreciation about the role of NGOs, but the invited NGO representatives found they could only attend the opening session and a final meeting. Even more, the arguments within the roundtable meeting, among the participants, whether there could be an agreed conclusion or only a chairman's summary delayed the final session for quite a while, and when it began left little time for the NGOs to express their own views.

The Roundtable called on the UN Commission for Sustainable Development (CSD), UNEP, UNCTAD, ITC (International Trade Centre), the World Trade Organization and other international organizations to continue to pursue closer coordination and cooperation on matters related to environment, trade and sustainable development.

The agreed conclusions said that trade, development and environmental protection should be mutually reinforcing (and) there is complementarity between them.

"Both trade liberalization and environmental protection are necessary to advance sustainable development," the agreed conclusions said. "In this context it was noted that eradication and alleviation of poverty has an important role to play in meeting the objectives of sustainable development".

The Roundtable stressed the important role of Multilateral Environment Agreements (MEAs) in addressing global and transboundary environmental problems and said: "Unilateral actions dealing with environmental challenges outside the jurisdiction of the importing country should be avoided. Environmental measures to address transboundary and global environmental problems should as far as possible be based on international consensus."

Implementing sustainable development globally, the conclusions said, "involves as a fundamental requirement improving the economic capacity of developing countries." Positive measures such as improved market access, capacity building, improved access to finance, access to and transfer of technology should be promoted to encourage developing countries to participate in the MEAs and provisions in existing MEAs on positive measures should be fully implemented.

The Roundtable noted that trade measures, in certain cases, can play a role in achieving the objectives of MEAs, while safeguarding a non-discriminatory and equitable multilateral trading system; that positive measures should be employed as appropriate to reduce or obviate the necessity for trade measures to secure compliance with MEAs.

The meeting also stressed that use of trade measures should not deter consideration of other options which may be more effective and all measures should uphold principles 7, 11 and 12 and the Rio Declaration.

Stressing the need to make greater progress in integrating environment, trade and development policies, the Round Table said there is a need to examine the relationship between trade principles and environment and development principles.

Emphasizing the importance of confidence building and mutual respect between the many international institutions interfacing in the trade and environment debate, the agreed conclusions said that dialogue at all levels including national level between the trade and environment sectors should be encouraged.

The agreed conclusions said that progress had been made in understanding the relationship between trade, environment and development in the (WTO) Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE),as well as UNCTAD, UNEP, and the CSD and stressed the need to maintain the momentum generated through these deliberations.

"Trade liberalisation and environmental protection," the meeting said in its conclusions, "are both important objectives in promoting sustainable development. However, the environmental benefits of trade liberalization are not automatic. they can only be derived if appropriate environmental polices and sustainable development strategies are implemented."

The link between environmental policies and competitiveness, the participants recognized, is complex. Although so far there was no available evidence to suggest that environmental policy generally has a significant detrimental effect upon competitiveness, further study is required of the potential impacts of environmental policies upon competitiveness and on market access, in particular for developing countries.

The meeting stressed the need for action to increase market access opportunities for developing countries, including by further removing tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade whilst safeguarding high levels of environmental protection and by promoting effective international cooperation aimed at encouraging trading opportunities for environmentally friendly products.

It also stressed the need for access to and transfer of environmentally sound technologies, technical and financial assistance, environmental capacity-building and other positive measures to support developing countries in their efforts to achieve sustainable development.

Participants also noted the importance of private investment flows in facilitating development and transfer of technology, including environmentally sound technologies. They stressed the need to eliminate or reduce environmentally harmful subsidies and trade distortive practices with a view to contributing to the achievement of environmental and sustainable development objectives.

The agreed conclusions reiterated the need to assess the environmental impacts of trade policies and agreements.

The meeting also underlined efforts aimed at awareness building and capacity development undertaken by UNDP, UNCTAD and UNEP and invited Governments in a position to do so to support the UNCTAD/UNEP programme for capacity building, in cooperation with UNDP, preferably on a regional basis, with special attention for Africa and the Least Developed Countries.