Unit 10 - Readings & Viewings
Trade & Environment Overlap (GATT/WTO Article 20 cont’d, In Practice, CBAMs Upcoming)
Watch:
Review An Introduction to Trade and the Environment at the WTO (sample some of the materials, and note in particular that countries are already calling for more trade and climate change policy coherence).
Read from Environmental disputes in GATT/WTO:
a. DS135 EC- Measures affecting asbestos and asbestos-containing products (2001; look at both the lower DSB and appellate body decisions, and note that this is a combined SPS Agreement and TBT Agreement case)
b. US- Import prohibition of Certain Shrimp and Shrimp Products (1998) (shrimp-turtle case; edited excerpt available at Shrimp TED appellate panel)
c. US- Standards for Reformulated and Conventional Gasoline (1996; edited excerpt available at Venezuelan Refinery appellate panel)
d. US- Restrictions on Imports of Tuna (1991) (tuna-dolphin case; edited excerpt available at Dolphin Friendly Tuna appellate panel)
Note from paragraphs 31-33 of the Doha Declaration that green or
“environmental goods and services” are already a concept in the negotiations, except what are green goods-- from an Indonesian perspective perhaps CPO used as “biodiesel,” but what are green goods from a US perspective, or are we talking more about “green services,” and is “renewable power” a good or a service anyway?
Read also, dating back to the early stages of the Doha round, Dirty Exports and Environmental Regulations: Do Standards Matter to Trade? (a 2002 World Bank policy paper examining the effect of environmental standards on developing country exports)
Red hots might want to look at Joost Paulweyn, "U.S. Federal Climate Policy and Competitiveness Concerns: The Limits and Options of International Trade Law, Working Paper, Nicolas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions", Duke University 2007 to develop a broader understanding of border measures and the like in the climate change context as a way of reconciling unilateral environmental actions with competitiveness concerns as a matter of trade law compliance in the climate change area, which is distinctively different as a technical matter now from concerns about the WTO DSB jurisprudence on the environment we read above.