. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  TN/TE/W/42 
6 July 2004 
 
 (04-2910) 
Committee on Trade and Environment 
Special Session Original:   English 
 
 
 
STATEMENT BY CHINA ON ENVIRONMEN TAL GOODS AT THE COMMITTEE ON 
TRADE AND ENVIRONMENT SPECIA L SESSION (CTESS) MEETING  
OF 22 JUNE 2004 
 
Paragraph 31 (iii)  
  
 The following communication, dated 6 July 2004,  is being circulated at the request of the 
delegation of China
. 
 
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I. INTRODUCTION 
1. The new round of multilateral trade negotiations  is called the Doha Development Agenda.  
Paragraph 2 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration reads that “the majority of WTO Members are 
developing countries.  We seek to place their needs and interests at the hear t of the Work Programme 
adopted in this Declaration.  Recalling the Preamble  to the Marrakech Agreement, we shall continue 
to make positive efforts designed to ensure that  developing countries, and especially the least-
developed among them, secure a share in the growth  of world trade commensur ate with the needs of 
their economic development.”  And in Paragraph 44 the importance of the special and differential 
treatment is reiterated. 
2. A note by the UNCTAD Secretariat on Environmental Goods and Services (EGS) in Trade 
and Sustainable Development1 reveals that “direct trade gains from liberalization in EGS may flow 
largely to the more advanced WTO Members, which stand to benefit from improved access to expanding EGS markets in developing countries.  Efforts should be made to increase the potential for 
direct trade gains for developing countries.” 
3. China shares the views of many Members that the criteria and scope of environmental goods 
are important to the negotiations.  We believe fu rther discussions on definition issue in the CTESS are 
necessary and we should avoid problems like multiple-uses, PPMs, Clean Technologies, etc., during the deliberations from the practical point of view.  It will facilitate the consensus-building process on 
relevant issues in an analytical and pragmatic ma nner.  We prefer a combined approach of both 
top-down and bottom-up in parallel. 
4. Enlightened by discussions so far made on envi ronmental goods, we suggested a concept of a 
common list and a development list at the C TESS meeting on 20 April 2004.  Members have 
expressed their interest in such a concept.  We he reby elaborate further on this basic concept, with a 
view to “casting a brick in order to attract appearance of jade in the discussion”. 
                                                     
 
1 UNCTAD:  TD/B/COM.1/EM.21/2 TN/TE/W/42 
Page 2  
 
 II. BASIC CONCEPTS OF “A COMMON LIST” AND “A DEVELOPMENT LIST” 
5. A Common List  means a list for all, which comprises specific product lines on which there is 
consensus that they constitute environmental goods.  The products included in this list should reflect 
the interests of both developed and developing Memb ers.  Priorities should be given to products of 
export interest of developing and least-developed Members in order to enhance the export capacity 
building on environmental goods in real terms.  For the products in the common list, Members are 
committed to reduce or eliminate tariff and non-ta riff barriers.  The specific modality of trade 
liberalization on environmental goods shall be developed by the NAMA negotiating group according 
to the Doha mandate. 
6. A Development List  is a list for S&D treatment born from the common list, which comprises 
those products selected by deve loping and least-developed Members from the common list for 
exemption or a lower level of reduction commitment, with a view to reflecting the principle of less 
than full reciprocity, taking into considerati on the needs of their economic development and the 
vulnerability of their relevant domestic i ndustries in the area of environmental goods. 
7. We also stress the need and importance of fac ilitation of technology transfer to the developing 
and least-developed Members when working on trade liberalization on environmental goods. 
III. CONCLUSION 
8. China welcomes the progress so far made in the discussion of the CTESS on Paragraph 31(iii) 
in an analytical and pragmatic manner.  The speci al and differential treatment to the developing and 
least-developed Members is a must in the process of liberalizing trade on environmental goods.  The concepts contained in this statement of China serve  to provide food for thought  in our deliberations on 
Paragraph 31(iii), as an input to the negotiations. 
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