New Initiative Aims to Eliminate Tariffs on Environmental Goods

The U.S. and more than a dozen other countries announced Jan. 24 a commitment to achieve global free trade in environmental goods and to begin preparing for negotiations toward that goal. The participants said they anticipate a structure for this agreement that would reinforce the rules-based multilateral trading system and benefit all World Trade Organization members, including by involving all major traders and applying the most-favored-nation principle. A press release from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said the effort currently includes Australia, Canada, China, Costa Rica, the European Union, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Switzerland and Taiwan, which together account for 86% of global trade in environmental goods, and that an agreement would take effect once a critical mass of WTO members participates...

This has been excerpted from the 27 January 2014 article by Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg LLP, and is available in its entirety at http://www.strtrade.com/news-publications-environmental-goods-tariffs-trade-negotiations-012714.html.