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In the WTO system, the provisions of environment include Preamble of Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the WTO, Article XX of GATT, Preamble and Article 2 of Agreement on TBT, Annex A.1 of Agreement on SPM, Annex 2 of Agreement on Agriculture, Article 27.2&3 of Agreement on TRIPs and Article XIV of GATS. There are also two decisions of environment: Decision on Trade and Environment (14 April 1994) and Decision of Trade in Services and Environment (15 December 1994).
B. Trade and Environment in the Marrakesh Decision
In order to achieve the objective of the CTE, the Marrakesh Decision listed ten items generally, including: goods, services and intellectual property. These items referred:
“Item 1: the relationship between the provisions of the multilateral trading system and trade measures for environmental purposes, including those pursuant to multilateral environmental agreements;
Item 2: the relationship between environmental policies relevant to trade and environmental measures with significant trade effects and the provisions of the multilateral trading system;
Item 3: the relationship between the provisions of the multilateral trading system and:
(a) Charges and taxes for environmental purposes;
(b) Requirements for environmental purposes relating to products, including standards and technical regulations, packaging, labeling and recycling;
Item 4: the provisions of the multilateral trading system with respect to the transparency of trade measures used for environmental purposes and environmental measures and requirements which have significant trade effects;
Item 5: the relationship between the dispute settlement mechanisms in the multilateral trading system and those found in multilateral environmental agreements;
Item 6: the effect of environmental measures on market access, especially in relation to developing countries, in particular to the least developed among them, and environmental benefits of removing trade restrictions and distortions;
Item 7: the issue of exports of domestically prohibited goods;
Item 8: TRIPs
Item 9: Services;
Item 10: appropriate arrangements for relations with non-governmental organizations referred to in Article V of the WTO and transparency of documentation.”
After the Marrakesh Decision, it is worth to concern the Singapore Report, which presented the important contribution CTE had made and discussions about the capacity of multilateral trading system and sustainable environmental development, the policy coordination, domestic environmental standards and competitive advantages of trade and trade measures in MEAs and the multilateral trading system. Specially, the CTE focused their issues on the WTO provisions and environmental taxes and charges, the voluntary eco-labelling programmes, Domestically Prohibited Goods, the role of TRIPs in technical assistance and transferring of technology, and so on.
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