RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/CTE/W/102
22 January 1999
(99-0226)
Committee on Trade and Environment
ITEM 4:  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
THE ENVIRONMENTAL DATABASE:  INTERIM REVIEW
OF THE GLOSSARY OF SEARCH WORDS
Note by the Secretariat
1. In March 1998, the Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE) agreed to develop an
Environmental Database in fulfilment of the recommendation in the Report (1996) of the CTE
(WT/CTE/1).  As set out in WT/CTE/W/78, Members instructed the Secretariat to:  (a) on an annual
basis, undertake a Comprehensive Review of all envi ronment-related notifications to continuously up-
date the Environmental Database, such as has been completed for 1997 in WT/CTE/W/77;  and (b) onan annual basis, conduct an Interim Review of the appropriateness of the search words used in the
compilation of the Environmental Database.
2. To carry out the Interim Review for the 1998 Environmental Database, Members are invited
at the 17-18 February 1999 meeting of the CTE to re view and suggest any modifications to the search
words listed below.  This glossary builds on that used to identify environment-related trade measures
and provisions in WTO notifications and Trade Policy Reviews in 1997 in WT/CTE/W/77:
bio, Basel Convention, carbon, CITES, climate, conserv(ation), clean, eco-label, ecolog(y),
extinct, desertification, emissions, endangere d, energy, environment, fauna, flora, forest,
green(house), hazardous, Kyoto Protocol, pollution, preserv(ation), Montreal Protocol, natural
resources, ozone, packag(ing), recycle, renewable, soil erosion, sustainable, toxic, waste, and
wildlife.
3. Given the complexity of determining what constitutes an environment-related measure, the
search and listing of measures in the Environmental Database is as comprehensive as possible.  The
above glossary of search words is deliberately shortened to capture strings and variants of words
relating to the environment.  For example, the use of the word "environment" suffices to capture more
specific terms such as "environmental protection" and "environmental technology".  Using the word"waste" or "energy" captures terms such as "waste minimization, waste recovery, recyclable waste,
waste reduction, etc." and  "energy efficiency, energy saving, conservation of  energy, etc.".  The use
of strings of letters such as "bio", "ecolog", etc. captures variants of certain environment-related
words or terms such as "biodiversity, biodegradable, etc." and "ecology, ecological, etc."
./.WT/CTE/W/102
Page 2
4. The Secretariat is undertaking a search of the environment-related notifications which were
notified in 1998 based on the above glossary.  Other search methods, such as the physical examination
of notifications and use of in-house records will be used to supplement the electronic search results.
5. The results of this search will be used to up-date the Environmental Database for 1998, which
will be available to Members electronically through the Document Dissemination Facility as aWT/CTE/W/-- document.
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