2nd Intersessional Meeting of UNCSD
15‐16 December 2011
Discussion on the compilation document:
comments and guidance for the zero draft outcome document
Statement by Karsten Steinfatt
World Trade Organization
Trade and Sustainable Development
The contribution of trade to sustainable development is now widely accepted. Around 50
Member States and Political Groups referred to "trade" in their Rio+20 submissions. This
reflects today's reality that sustainable development and trade cannot be considered in
isolation: international trade is a key component of sustainable development.
The contribution of trade to sustainable development was recognized in Rio in 1992 and
Johannesburg in 2002; it is confirmed in the multilateral trading system of the WTO. With
the creation of the WTO in 1995, WTO members established an explicit link between
sustainable development and disciplined trade liberalization to ensure that market opening
goes hand‐in‐hand with environmental and social objectives.
The Rio+20 outcome document should reaffirm the vital contribution of trade to sustainable
development, and to recognize the importance of an open and equitable rules‐based
multilateral trading system in helping the international community turn the vision of
sustainable development into reality.
Trade and Green Economy
The submissions for Rio+20 show that the on‐going transition to a green economy is often
seen as a challenge for international trade. One main concern relates to the possibility of
protectionism in the guise of measures to shift to a green economy.
Twenty years ago in Rio, the international community responded to a similar challenge by
expressing its determination that trade measures with an environmental purpose should
not be a disguised restriction on international trade.
This message remains vital. The shift to a green economy is transforming the environmental
policy landscape in important ways, giving rise to new friction points between green
economy measures and international trade.
When considering how the outcome document could address green protectionism, a useful
starting point is to recognize that the multilateral trading system already offers a host of
tools to help countries ensure that green economy measures are not green trade barriers.
Let me briefly illustrate how WTO rules and its work on transparency provide an effective
safeguard against green protectionism.
From the trade perspective, the most common types of measures that countries are using to
green their economies are non‐tariff measures such as environmental requirements, taxes
and tradable permit schemes, and subsidies.
WTO rules have long addressed non‐tariff measures, trying to achieve a crucial balance: on
the one hand they support the right of countries to take non‐tariff measures to advance
legitimate goals such as protecting the environment; and, on the other, they ensure that
non‐tariff measures do not impose an undue burden on international trade.
Besides the rules, a key safeguard against green protectionism is the WTO's work to foster
transparency. This work ranges from exchanges of information to more "active" forms of
transparency like "peer review" of measures that cause trade concerns. Active forms of
transparency take place in committees and other bodies dedicated to technical regulations,
subsidies, intellectual property and government procurement ‐ areas that are at the heart of
the green economy.
The outcome document should encourage the international community to make full use of
these and other transparency‐enhancing activities of the WTO, including the system set up
recently to monitor trade measures taken in response to the financial crisis. This would help
achieve greater transparency in, and understanding of green economy measures and their
impact on international trade.
Trade and developing countries
It is abundantly clear from the Rio+20 submissions that many developing countries do not
have the capacity to take advantage of trade opportunities.
This is a longstanding problem. In 1992, the Rio Declaration confirmed that trade can be a
powerful engine for economic growth, poverty reduction and sustainable development, but
it also recognised that harnessing its power is often difficult for many developing countries.
The WTO gives developing countries extensive technical assistance and helps them build the
economic capacity to take advantage of trade opportunities ‐ including green export
opportunities. The WTO is also a leading player in a range of trade‐related international
capacity‐building initiatives.
The outcome document should reaffirm the international community's commitment to
promote an international trading system that takes account of the needs of developing
countries. As part of this, it could emphasize the importance of ensuring that initiatives to
build trade capacity in developing countries also support these countries' transition to a
green economy.
Conclusion
To conclude, the compilation document shows the strong aspiration of the international
community to capture the full benefits from trade for sustainable development, and to
minimize the risk of protectionism in the guise of green economy. Rio+20 offers a unique
opportunity for the international community to reaffirm its commitment to realize this dual
aspiration by means of an open and equitable rules‐based multilateral trading system.
