Yahoo News 30 Nov 07;
Solar panels, wind turbines and other "green" goods and services should face fewer tariffs and other trade barriers, the United States and European Union proposed at the World Trade Organisation on Friday.
Washington and Brussels jointly proposed that all 151 members of the WTO cut tariffs on at least 43 types of environmentally-friendly goods and services in order to boost their use worldwide.
"By eliminating tariff and non-tariff barriers to environmental goods and services, particularly clean energy technologies, we can lower their costs and increase global access to and use of these important products," US trade representative Susan Schwab said in a statement.
"By making it cheaper and easier to trade in these goods and services the proposal would help to spread green technologies globally, especially to industrialising developing countries," the EU said in its own statement.
"Other products with a clear environmental benefit, for example goods related to waste water management and potable water treatment, waste management, and air pollution control could be added to this list," the EU said.
The two trading powers also proposed a new WTO agreement to further open trade in green goods and services, on the basis of a complete list of environmental goods submitted by the EU and other WTO members earlier in the year.
The US said that global trade in the goods covered by the proposal amounted to around 613 billion dollars (417 billion euros) in 2006, with exports growing by an average of 15 percent per annum since 2000.
A recent World Bank study claimed that removing tariff and non-tariff barriers on key clean energy technologies could increase trade by between 7-14 percent annually.
"A corresponding increase in use of such technologies and services could contribute importantly to global efforts to address climate change and energy security," the US said.
US, EU propose tariff cuts on green goods
Business Times 3 Dec 07;
End of trade barriers may spur use of green technologies
(GENEVA) The US and the EU have proposed eliminating tariffs worldwide on solar, wind and related technologies to spur their use and reduce global warming.
The proposal, made at the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva last Friday, calls for all 151 members of that global trade body to eliminate tariffs on goods directly linked to curbing climate change as part of the continuing Doha Round of trade negotiations.
By ending tariff and non-tariff barriers to those products, 'we can lower their costs and increase global access to and use of these important products', US Trade Representative Susan Schwab said in a statement.
After spurning the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on curbing greenhouse gases, the Bush administration is on the defensive as some European industry groups urge tariffs on goods from countries that have not implemented the agreement.
US President George W Bush opposes a mandatory cap on greenhouse gases such as those called for under Kyoto.
The joint proposal calls for the immediate elimination of barriers to trade for 43 products ranging from thermostats to universal joints for wind turbines to parts for boilers.
The proposal also calls for liberalisation in investment rules for environmental services and a longer-term, broader round of tariff cuts for other environmental technologies.
Total trade in those goods topped US$600 billion in 2006, and global exports of these goods have grown annually by an average of 15 per cent since 2000, the US said.
Eliminating those tariffs and other restrictions may spur exports from the US, Japan, China and Germany, which are among the largest exporters of those goods, by more than 13 per cent, the World Bank said in a report last month. -- Bloomberg
