8:05 AM Jul 15, 1996
THREE NGOS ASK WAIVER OF DSU COMPETENCE OVER MEAS
Geneva, 15 Jul (TWN) -- Three Northern-based international non-governmental organizations have called upon the World Trade Organization (WTO) to confirm that its dispute settlement panels have no competence to establish the environmental objectives of Multilateral Environmental Agreements nor how best to achieve them. The three organizations, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Friends of the Earth (FOE) and Greenpeace issued this demand in a joint statement issued here. The three NGOs argued that international environmental agreements relying on trade measures for implementation would be undermined if reforms proposed in the WTO were adopted. They argued that whenever a WTO trade dispute has any implications for environmental policies or regulation, advice must be sought from independent environmental experts. The WWF claimed that not all proposals before the WTO Committee on Trade and Environment were regressive. The CTE, the WWF said, should produce recommendations for the Singapore Ministerial meeting to remove any WTO challenge to MEAs. Developing countries at the WTO are generally opposed to any blanket ex ante exemptions to MEAs and trade measures purported to be taken under them. Rather, they have been arguing, there can at best be ex post requests for and grant of waivers. Several of the environment and development NGOs of the South have also been opposing any package of accords for Singapore on the basis of a mini-package, and insist that any package or recommendations must include those for changes in the TRIPs accord, both for environmentally friendly technology transfers as well as changes relating to bio- and genetic-patenting.