WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/CTE/W/227
29 April 2003
(03-2243)
Committee on Trade and Environment Original:  English
PARAGRAPH 33 OF THE DOHA DECLARATION
Submission by the United States
Paragraph 33:  We recognize the importance of technical assistance and capacity building in the
field of trade and environment to developing countries, in particular the least-developed among
them.  We also encourage that expertise and experience be shared with members wishing to
perform environmental reviews at the national level.  A report shall be prepared on theseactivities for the Fifth Session.
I. INTRODUCTION
1. Since the Fourth WTO Ministerial Meeting in Doha, Qatar, in 2001, a useful exchange of
ideas and information under Paragraph 33 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration has occurred in theCTE Regular Session.  This submission by the United States highlights some of the suggestions and
efforts we find especially useful for enhancing trade and environment capacity building.  In addition,
this paper identifies efforts by U.S. government agencies to provide technical assistance in this area.
We submit this paper with the expectation that it will contribute to the report of the CTE Regular
Session to the Fifth Ministerial Meeting in Cancun, Mexico, in September 2003.
II. MEMBER COMMENTS
2. Several themes have begun to emerge from Member statements in the CTE Regular Session
about technical assistance and trade capacity building.  First, many Members have noted the
importance of creating capacity building programs to assist developing country negotiators to prepare
for negotiations in the WTO.  The promotion of South-South cooperation, including information
exchange and sharing common experiences, should be an essential part of these trade capacity
building programs. Second, in order for capacity building to be successful, it is fundamental to
conduct a proper assessment of country needs by national authorities as well as by regional and
multilateral institutions.  UNEP has been particularly active in this area.  Finally, the key element of
any trade and environment capacity building or t echnical assistance program is to bring together
officials from domestic trade and environment ministries to exchange views on issues of mutual
interest.   The United States believes that trade and environmental capacity is enhanced when focusedat the national level on establishing lines of communication between environment experts, who may
not have an extensive background on trade matters, and trade experts, who similarly may not have an
extensive background in environmental policy.  This idea of domestic coordination between trade and
environment officials has also received emphasis in the discussion of Paragraph 31 (i) in the
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III. U.S. EFFORTS
3. An important part of the U.S. trade agenda is to help developing nations build the capacity to
take part in trade negotiations and then implement the results.  The United States provides substantial
bilateral trade-related technical assistance to developing countries, with programs that totaled
$638 million in 2002.  During fiscal years 1999-2001 the U.S. contributed over $84 millionworldwide in trade capacity building specifically related to environmental trade and standards.  From
October 2001 through August 2002 the total contributions for these programs exceeded $19 million.
Of these contributions, over $8.7 millio n went to LDCs between 1999 and 2000.
4. The United States has also made a number of specific contributions to assist the WTO, most
recently on April 2, 2003, when it announced that it would contribute $1 million to a voluntary
WTO Global Trust Fund to provide technical assistance for developing country trade capacity-
building efforts.  Beyond the April announcement, the United States has also given $1 million to theWTO Global Trust Fund following the Doha Ministerial, and contributed $250,000 to the
WTO's regional trade policy courses in Kenya and Morocco.
5. The United States implements trade and environment capacity building through efforts of its
Federal agencies, including the Agency for Inte rnational Development (USAID), the Trade and
Development Agency, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of the Interior,the Department of Commerce, the National Oceans and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the
Department of State, the Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Office of the United States
Trade Representative (USTR).  Presently the USTR is  leading an interagency discussion to facilitate
bilateral trade capacity building and technical assistance with several developing countries.  Activities
vary widely depending on the agency offering the technical assistance and the priorities of the hostcountry, but a major emphasis in many programs is given to enhancing communication and
collaboration between trade and environment officials at the national level.  Some examples of these
trade and environment capacity building programs include USAID and EPA efforts to assist Central
American countries with environmental compliance an d enforcement in areas likely to be impacted by
trade; workshops designed by the Department of In terior to improve enforcement of CITES in Mexico
to prevent illegal wildlife trade; and the U.S.- Asia Environmental Partnership program (USAEP),
which creates partnerships to support the exchange of best practices and technology as a means to
promote cleaner and more efficient industries and ci ties in developing Asian countries.  In addition,
the Department of State is leading an interagency process to develop environmental cooperation
mechanisms to, among other things, assist developing country trading partners with trade and
non-trade related environmental capacity building.
IV. ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEWS
6. Paragraph 33 also encourages expertise and experience to be shared with members wishing to
perform environmental reviews at the national level.  The U.S. experience with conducting formal
environmental reviews goes back to the 1992 NAFTA report on environmental issues.  In 1999, the
United States began conducting formal environmental reviews of certain trade negotiations under
Executive Order 13141.  The purpose of these reviews is to help identify potential environmentaleffects of trade agreements, both positive and negative, in order to facilitate responses to such effects
throughout the negotiation and implementation processes.  Reviews are intended to be one tool,
among others, for integrating environmental information and analysis into the fluid, dynamic process
of trade negotiations.  The overarching framework usually contains three major components: a
determination of the scope that the environmental review will take; an estimation of the economic andregulatory effects of the proposed trade agreement; and estimates of the subsequent environmental
impacts.  Throughout the review process th e United States maintains a commitment to
intergovernmental and public participation.  Since the Executive Order was signed, environmental
reviews have been conducted for several bilateral trade negotiations, including the U.S.-Jordan,WT/CTE/W/227
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U.S.-Singapore, and U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreem ents.  In addition, environmental reviews are
presently underway for the WTO Doha Round of negotiations and the Free Trade Area of the
Americas negotiations, as well as for current FTA negotiations with Morocco, Central America, the
Southern African Customs Union and Australia.
7. Given the relatively recent arrival of environmental reviews of proposed trade agreements, the
United States considers its methodology for conducting these reviews to still be an evolutionary
process.  The United States already has learned a great deal from its work, and is willing to share its
experience in this area with developing countries.  In this spirit, EPA has developed a training course
on conducting national environmental reviews of trad e agreements, and is using it in Central America
to assist countries to predict and plan for anticipated environmental changes due to trade
liberalization.  This process also helps in identifying potential areas to put in place improved
environmental measures to further promote a country’s efforts towards sustainable development.
V. UNEP EFFORTS
8. The United States supports ongoing work by UNEP in support of the objectives of
Paragraph 33.  In particular, we believe that recent studies of the impact of trade liberalization on
certain agriculture and natural resource sectors in several developing countries (most recently in
Argentina, China, Ecuador, Nigeria, Senegal and Tanzania) are useful for identifying vulnerablesectors and policy failures, as well as possible policy solutions to address these problems.  The diverse
array of issues identified come from a complex set of distinct policy variables in each situation, but
across many studies the conclusions point to, among other suggestions, the importance of increasing
domestic coordination among environment, trade, finance, and other government officials.
VI. CONCLUSION
9. In conclusion, the United States supports many forms of technical assistance for trade and
environment capacity building, through bilateral, regional, and multilateral programs and initiatives.
Regardless of the forum, the United States believes that these programs are most effective when they
lead to enhanced coordination between domestic environment and trade officials.
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