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Info Service on WTO and Trade Issues (Sep25/04) Geneva, 7 Sep (D. Ravi Kanth) -- Amid the proliferation of unilateral trade-related climate measures and barriers, the World Trade Organization is convening on 28 September an informal "thematic session on trade-related climate measures, including interoperability and development aspects." The meeting takes place as countries worldwide are grappling with severe climate change crises - most recently the catastrophic breakup of a Himalayan glacier in Tibet, resulting in deadly flash floods in Nepal, killing more than a thousand people, with thousands others still missing. Against this backdrop, the WTO's Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE) is expected to discuss a range of issues, including "multilateral agreements and WTO," and "environmental measures and market access." According to a restricted CTE document (WTO/AIR/CTE/31) issued on 28 August, seen by the SUNS, a formal two-day meeting of the CTE will commence on 29 September, preceded by the proposed informal meeting on "trade-related climate measures." The agenda for the regular meeting indicates that discussions will focus on "members' submissions and proposals," "environmental measures and market access," "multilateral environmental agreements and WTO," and "transparency of environment-related trade measures." Major industrialized countries, particularly the European Union, appear determined to advance several controversial measures and policies relating to the environment. The EU's allegedly unilateral trade measures - such as the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and its "regulation on deforestation-free products" - have faced strong opposition from many developing countries in the CTE meetings to date. However, by dangling the proverbial carrot of market access, the EU seems to be succeeding in pushing both the CBAM and the deforestation regulation through the backdoor of bilateral free trade agreements, as it has done with India, according to a person familiar with the India-EU bilateral free trade agreement. Several South American countries and Indonesia have also consistently opposed the EU regulation on deforestation-free products in past CTE meetings, said people familiar with the development. Nevertheless, the WTO's Director-General, Ms Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has reportedly remained silent on the EU's allegedly unilateral trade and environment measures, said people, who asked not to be quoted. MEAs & WTO The agenda for the regular CTE meeting on 29 September includes several topics under the broad sub-heading of "multilateral environmental agreements and WTO." A major topic under multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) is the "United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)" and a "briefing by the UNFCCC Secretariat on recent developments and preparations for the UNFCCC's 31st Conference of the Parties (COP31) to be held in Antalya, Turkiye" from 9-20 November. Interestingly, the WTO Secretariat is set to present a report on its preparations for COP31, despite having repeatedly failed to become a crucial interlocutor (participant) in past COP meetings, said a trade official who asked not to be named. At a time when global supply chains are being severely fragmented by worsening geopolitical and geoeconomic tensions - placing the multilateral trading system in peril - apparent attempts to expand the trade and environment agenda at the WTO may not yield meaningful results, the official suggested. As previously reported, the DG's repeated efforts since the 27th Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, in November 2022 to include the issue of trade in the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) of Parties to the Paris Climate Change Agreement through the "investment facilitation pathway" have failed to garner significant support. Ms Okonjo-Iweala, however, has justified the inclusion of trade in the NDCs as "part of [the] solution for achieving a low-carbon, resilient, and just transition." The DG, along with the EU and several other industrialized countries, including the United States, worked hard to incorporate trade-related climate measures into the WTO's 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13) outcome document in Abu Dhabi in February 2024. However, no agreement was reached to include this item on the agenda. Paragraph 15 of the MC13 outcome document (WT/MIN(24)/DEC) merely states: "In recalling the objectives in the Marrakesh Agreement and in recognizing the role that the multilateral trading system can play in contributing towards the achievement of the UN 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals, in so far as they relate to the WTO mandate, we underscore the importance of trade and sustainable development in its three pillars - economic, social, and environmental." Against this backdrop, the expansive agenda of the CTE meeting raises serious doubts as to whether the WTO should pursue climate change issues when these are specifically mandated to be addressed and resolved at the 29th Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC, said officials familiar with the discussions. CBD The CTE agenda also includes issues concerning the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), under which the CBD Secretariat will present a report on preparations for the CBD's 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17), to be held in Yerevan, Armenia, next month. In addition, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) will brief on CITES' 20th Conference of the Parties (COP20), held in November 2025 in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. The CTE meeting will also include a discussion on "Transparency of Environment-related Trade Measures," which is likely to raise several questions regarding the seemingly insidious measures being adopted by some major industrialized countries, said another official who asked not to be named. INFORMAL CTE MEETING The informal CTE meeting on 28 September, scheduled as the seventh thematic session, will focus on a range of issues. During the opening session, a factual overview of past CTE work on trade-related climate measures (TrCMs) will be presented. It will include "a general mapping of issues related to interoperability towards a more operational examination of what interoperability means in practice, where gaps arise for governments and enterprises, and what forms of cooperation may help address them. Development aspects will be covered all through the programme." On Session 1 on scoping, "our understanding of interoperability of TrCMs (with a focus on carbon-related measures)," will explore "specific elements that may need to be comparable or capable of being recognized across systems." To guide the discussion, several questions have been framed, including: 1. What does interoperability of TrCMs mean? How is it reflected in policy design and in practice? 2. What practical approaches can enhance the interoperability of existing systems, and what legal, institutional, or data conditions are needed? 3. How do various GHG accounting frameworks relate to each other, particularly in the context of specific sectors such as steel or cement, and how may differences in methodologies affect comparability across jurisdictions? 4. What common technical foundations can support consistent emissions reporting while allowing for diverse policy applications? The second session, under the sub-heading "Regulatory design choices, implementation and implications for monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) systems," will focus on "stress testing interoperability from the perspectives of government representatives from different levels of economic development and private sector representatives from firms of different sizes, big and small." The guiding questions framed for this session include: 1. What are the key design choices in carbon-related measures that may significantly impact compliance and interoperability? 2. How may design reflect legitimate policy choices vis-a-vis avoidable duplication or additional compliance burdens? 3. Where can domestic data and methodologies already be used for external compliance purposes? 4. How may carbon-related information requirements affect enterprises that do not produce the primary material but obtain, transmit and rely on information from upstream suppliers? 5. How may different stakeholders, including steel producers (and users), multinationals operating across jurisdictions, and independent verifiers, address such challenges in implementation, availability of data, or adaptation to evolving requirements? The third session "will examine concrete mechanisms that could facilitate compliance, reduce unnecessary duplication and strengthen cooperation." The discussions will address what kinds of support mechanisms - especially those linked with trade - could be considered to address the challenges in complying with carbon-related TrCMs; whether there are possible flexibilities for developing countries and LDCs; and considerations on establishing common understandings at the design level to ease doing business, enhance technical assistance and capacity building, and enable trade- linked financing, together with specific examples of cooperation. The questions framed for this session cover: 1. How is interoperability considering development aspects in the implementation of TrCMs, with respect to data and verification from third countries? 2. How can governments identify and communicate emerging requirements, coordinate standards, and enhance compliance support for SMEs, while addressing bottlenecks in data, measurement and institutional coordination? 3. What role could technical assistance, finance, technology and international cooperation play for viable interoperability approaches that are workable for countries with different levels of capacity? 4. How can interoperability be established between standards, for example, in the steel sector, while they retain different institutional structures or classification systems? 5. What other tools, mechanisms or frameworks are available to improve compliance and increase cooperation? In short, the meeting seemingly fails to address the concrete problems faced by developing and least-developed countries due to the unilateral trade-related environmental measures imposed by the EU and other member countries, said people familiar with the development. +
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