RESTRICTED  
  
WT/CTE/M/68  
 
17 March 2020  
  
(20-2074) Page: 1/34 
Committee on Trade and Environment    
 
REPORT OF THE MEETIN G HELD ON 26-27 NOVEMBER  2019  
NOTE BY THE SECRETAR IAT1 
The Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE Regular) met on 26-27 November  2019, chaired by  
Mr Jean-Marie Paugam (France) . The Committee adopted the Airgram, WTO/AIR/CTE/ 10, issued 
on 23 October  2019. The latest list of documents of the Committee was circulated on  
29 February  2016 in document WT/CTE/INF/5/Rev.12 . The Report of the last CTE  meeting, held 
on 15 May 2019  is contained in WT/CTE/M/6 7.  
_______________  
Contents  
1   ENVIRONMENTAL MEASUR ES AND MARKET ACCESS  (PARAGRAPH 32 (I) O F THE 
DOHA MINISTERIAL DEC LARATION)  ................................ ................................ ................  4 
1.1   Fossil fuel subsidy reform  ................................ ................................ .............................  4 
1.2   Trade in jute  ................................ ................................ ................................ ...............  5 
1.3   Other  ................................ ................................ ................................ .........................  6 
2   MEAS AND THE WTO  (ITEM 1 OF THE CTE WORK PROGRAMME): MEA S DEALING 
WITH CHEMICALS AND W ASTES (THE BASEL, RO TTERDAM AND STOCKHOL M (BRS) 
CONVENTIONS)  ................................ ................................ ................................ ................  7 
2.1   BRS Conventions' update  ................................ ................................ ..............................  7 
2.2   Members' experience sharing on circular economy and plastics  ................................ .........  8 
2.2.1    China's briefing on the Workshop on "Pla stic Pollution"  ................................ ..................  8 
2.2.2    Norway's national policy on circular economy, waste and marine pollution  ......................  9 
2.2.3    Switzerland's presentation on the Swiss -Colombian Cooperation in the area of  
e-waste Recycling ................................ ................................ ................................ ..............  10 
2.2.4    The European Union 's takeaways of the first Circular Economy Action Plan (2015 -2019)  . 11 
2.2.5    China's practice on circular economy  ................................ ................................ .........  13 
2.2.6    United States' submission on "Circular Economy and the WTO"  ................................ .... 14 
2.2.7    Costa Rica's briefing on the Workshop on "Circular Economy and Trade Advancing 
Economic Development and Combating Climate Change"  ................................ .......................  14 
2.2.8    Canada's briefing on the Workshop on "Circular Economy and the Business Perspective" 
organized by the group of Friends of Advancing Sustainable Trade (FAST)  ...............................  15 
2.3   Members' discussion  ................................ ................................ ................................ .. 16 
2.4   Presentations by international organizations  ................................ ................................ . 17 
2.4.1    World Customs Organization (WCO)  ................................ ................................ ..........  17 
 
1 This document has been prepared under the Secretariat's own responsibility and is without prejudice to 
the positions of Members or to their rights and obligations under the WTO.  WT/CTE/M/68  
  
- 2 - 
 
  2.4.2    Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)  ................................  17 
2.4.3    International Organization for Standardizati on (ISO) ................................ ...................  18 
2.4.4    United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) ................................ ...... 19 
2.4.5    Presentation by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP)  ................................  20 
2.4.6    Presentation by the International Trade Centre (ITC)  ................................ ..................  21 
2.5   Presentation by the WTO Secretariat  ................................ ................................ ............  23 
3   MEAS AND THE WTO  (ITEM 1 OF THE CTE WORK PROGRAMME): CON VENTION ON 
INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN ENDANGERED SPECIE S OF WILD FAUNA AND FLORA 
(CITES)  ................................ ................................ ................................ ...........................  24 
3.1   CITES' update  ................................ ................................ ................................ ...........  24 
3.2   Members' experience sharing  ................................ ................................ ......................  26 
4   TRANSPARENCY OF ENVIRONMENT -RELATED TRADE MEASURES (ITEM  4 OF  
THE CTE WORK PROGRAM ME) ................................ ................................ ........................  28 
4.1   WTO Environmental Database  ................................ ................................ .....................  28 
5   SERVICES AND THE  ENVIRONMENT (ITEM 9  OF THE CTE WORK PRO GRAMME)  ........  30 
6   OTHER BUSINESS  ................................ ................................ ................................ ...... 31 
6.1   Natural disasters ................................ ................................ ................................ ........  31 
6.2   Other briefings by observer organizations  ................................ ................................ ..... 31 
6.3   Other matters ................................ ................................ ................................ ............  32 
ANNEX 1: ITEMS OF TH E CTE WORK PROGRAMME  ................................ .........................  33 
ANNEX 2: PARTS OF TH E DOHA MINISTERIAL D ECLARATION THAT RELA TE TO THE 
WORK OF THE CTE REGU LAR ................................ ................................ ..........................  34 
 
_______________  
 
  WT/CTE/M/68  
 
- 3 - 
 
  ACRONYMS  
ACCTS  Agreement on Climate Change, Trade and Sustainability  
ASCM  Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures  
BRS Conventions  Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions  
CETA Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement  
CITES  Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna 
and Flora  
CoP Conference of the Parties  
CTE Committee on Trade and Environment  
DFQF  Duty-free and quota -free 
EDB WTO Environmental Database  
EGA Environmental Goods Agreement  
EPR Extended Producer Responsibility  
FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations  
FAST group  Friends of Advancing Sustainable Trade  
FFSR Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform  
FTA Free Trade Agreement  
GEF Global Environment Facility  
GHG Greenhouse Gas  
ISO International Organization for Standardization  
LDC Least develop country  
MC Ministerial Conference  
MEAs  Multilateral Environmental Agreements  
MSMEs  Micro, small and medium enterprises  
NGO Non-governmental organization  
OECD  Organisation for Economic Co -operation and Development  
PET Polyethylene terephthalate  
RTA Regional Trade Agreement  
SDG Sustainable Development Goal  
SMEs  Small and Medium Sized Enterprises  
TBT Technical Barriers to Trade  
TPR Trade Policy Review  
UNCTAD  United Nations Conference on Trade and Development  
UNEA  United Nations Environment Assembly  
UNEP  United Nations Environment Programme  
UNIDO  United Nations Industrial Development Organization  
WCO World Customs Organi zation 
 
_______________  
 
  WT/CTE/M/68  
  
- 4 - 
 
  1  ENVIRONMENTAL MEASUR ES AND MARKET ACCESS  (PARAGRAPH 32 (I) O F THE DOHA 
MINISTERIAL DECLARAT ION) 
"The effect of environmental measures on market access, especially in relation to 
developing countries, in particular the least -developed among them, and those 
situations in which the elimination or reduction of trade restrictions and distortions 
would benefit trade, the environment and development."  
1.1  Fossil fuel subsidy reform  
1.1.  The representative of New Zealand  provide d an update  on recent developments on fossil fuel 
subsidy reform  (FFSR) .2 As explained at previous meetings of th e CTE , a group of 12 developing and 
developed Members from many regions launched a Joint Statement on FFSR at the eleventh 
WTO Ministerial Conference  (MC11) . In the statement , signa tories confirmed their intention to seek 
the rationali zation and phase -out of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage d wasteful 
consumption, while recognising that reform need ed to take into account the specific needs and 
conditions of developing countries and to minimize the possible adverse impacts on their 
development in a way that protect ed poor and affected communities. Signatories  also recognized 
the importance of the WTO as a forum to advance discussions to achieve ambitious and effective 
disciplines, including through enhanced transparency and reporting to enable the evaluation of the 
trade and resource effects of fossil fuel subsidies programmes.  
1.2.  Since December 2017, signatories had  organi zed information -sharing events to raise 
awareness of  the scale and impacts of fossil fuel subsidies, advances in methodology such as for 
national reporting on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)  12(c) and the opportunities that reform 
present ed. The most recent example of this was at the Public Forum on 10 O ctober  2019. The 
FFSR session included panellists from the Organisation for Economic Co -operation and Development 
(OECD ), the International Chamber of Commerce  (ICC)  and the United Nations  Environment 
Programme (UNEP) to discuss reform from the economic and business perspective s, while also 
placing the issue in the context of global concerns on climate change and the implementation of the 
SDGs .3 As noted in this session, as leaders overs aw their domestic implementation of SDG 12 (c), it 
was suggest ed that  there could be a common interest in a collective approach to FFSR at the WTO 
- to provide a supportive international context for domestic efforts, in a coordinated and coherent 
way. Therefore, as explained by New  Zealand  Ambassador Walker at the Public Forum, New Zealand 
and other Members were working to renew the MC11 statement at MC12  to attract  broader support 
for the statement, with greater regional representation.  
1.3.  The representative of Norway  noted his delegation's  support  for the work towards a ministerial 
declaration on FFSR at MC12. G iven the urgency  of the climate change challenge , it was hoped that 
many Members would join this ministerial declaration .  
1.4.  The representative of Switzerland  noted that Switzerland ac tively supported the work on 
FFSR in the WTO and the continuation of the discussion in the CTE. Switzerland also invited other 
delegations to join the ministerial declaration in 2020.  
1.5.  The representative of Costa Rica  noted that Costa Rica was one of the si gnatories of the Joint 
Statement at MC11 and confirmed that his delegation would also join the renewed declaration at 
MC12. Costa  Rica believed that the WTO could play a positive role in advancing discussions on  
FFSR to ensure  ambitious disciplines  on this  topic. Costa Rica also encouraged other delegations to 
join the ministerial declaration in MC12.   
1.6.  The representative of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia  reiterated that this issue was dealt with 
under the G20, where by a voluntary phasing out of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encouraged 
wasteful consumption  was done  with two clear qualifiers: voluntary and in accordance with countries' 
national circumstances, priorities and needs. Her delegation  did not agree to  link this issue to the 
WTO and to discuss it in the WTO.  
 
2 See document JOB/TE/60 . 
3 A summary, and video recording, is available on the WTO Public Forum website.  WT/CTE/M/68  
 
- 5 - 
 
  1.7.  The representative of Chinese Taipei  welcomed  global effort s in raising awareness  and noted 
that addressing the challenges of fossil subsidies  had recently gained momentum . Chinese Taipei  
was of the  view that  effectively addressing the issue could deliver trade, economic, social  and 
environmental benefits . Sustainable development was  a fundamental principle of the WTO . 
Chinese  Taipei welcomed that  this agenda  be further advanced in the CTE and looked  forward to the 
continuous dialogue and experience sharing  among Members  with a view to exploring potential 
avenues for reform  in the future . 
1.2  Trade in jute  
1.8.  The representative of Bangladesh4 briefed delegations on the advantages of jute as a 
sustainable alternative to plastics and its role in the overall circular economy. Jute could  be used  as 
an alternative to timber, synthetics and plastic and could  be seen in a whole range of products for 
domestic, commercial and industrial use. Jute trade was currently centred around the Indian 
subcontinent. Bangladesh was the largest exporter of raw jute, while India (closely followed by 
Bangladesh) was the largest producer as well as  the largest consumer  of jute products in the world. 
Exports from Bangladesh were mainly to India. Main importers of jute included India, Pakistan and 
Nigeria. Regarding woven fabrics of jut e, India and the United States were the biggest importers 
and India the biggest exporte r. The International Jute Study Group, headquartered in Dhaka, was 
functioning as the international commodity board for jute, kenaf and related fibres. The 
European  Union was an active member of the Group.  
1.9.  Jute was completely biodegradable and recyclable, and fabrics made of jute fibres were carbon 
neutral and naturally decomposable. Jute grew fast , reaching maturation in as little as 4 -6 months. 
Moreover, plants were grown using no pesticides. As it grew in tropical areas, it depended on a 
natural irrigati on system.   
1.10.   According to a 2019 report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development 
(UNCTAD ), entitled "Advancing SDG -14", the use of plastics had increased 20 times in the past 
half-century and was expected to double again in the next 20  years. For instance, in the 
European  Union, the main application s of plastics included packaging, building and construction, 
automotive industry, electronics and agriculture. The representative highlighted that j ute was an 
effective alternative to plastic bags  and synthetic products . For instance, g eotextiles made from jute, 
were used for soil erosion control, seed protection, weed control, and many other agricultural and 
landscaping uses. Jute was also used now in the automotive industry. Recently, a biodegrad able 
food-grade bag made of jute had been invented and should  soon be commercialized.  
1.11.   Turning to trade concerns, j ute face d problems of access because competing  synthetic fibres 
might  not face the full costs of production, partly because of subsidies to energy. On the other hand, 
the price of jute substitutes did not  internali ze environmental and other externalities. There ha d 
been progress in facilitating duty-free and quota -free (DFQ F) market access for least developed 
countr ies' (LDCs) products. Yet, environment -friendly products  (e.g. jute products) of export interest 
to LDCs , including  graduating LDCs  like Bangladesh , were still subject to high tariffs in certain 
markets. Jute expo rts were also affected by non -tariff barriers (e. g. certification -related difficulties) . 
1.12.   On the way forward, the representative called for promoting  jute along with its  products and 
by-products as environment -friendly commodities.  The United Nations ( UN) Second  Committee 
Resolution on Natural Plant Fibres and Sustainable Development (21 November 2019) call ed upon 
governments to mainstream the promotion of natural plant fibres into their policies . There should 
also be s tringent policy measures against sing le-use plastic s (e.g. plastic/polythene shopping bags) 
and measures for the promotion of jute polybags  and other jute -made substitutes . He raised the 
issues of  special support , market access and incentives  for small and medium -sized enterprises 
(SMEs) in jute products ; research and development  (R&D) support for jute -product diversification ; 
and invest ment in industrial use of jute in sectors like motor vehicle s and construction . Jute coalitions 
of European buyers (e.g. Eurojute)  could  help enhance consumer  awareness, stakeholder dialogues 
and greater involvement of the media . 
1.13.   The export base of LDCs, and graduating LDCs like Bangladesh, was extremely narrow. Hence, 
WTO should facilitate market access for products from these Members . DFQF for jute products could 
 
4 See document RD/CTE/157/Rev.1  WT/CTE/M/68  
  
- 6 - 
 
  be discussed. There should be scope for a ddressing non -tariff barriers and for c apacity building/aid 
for trade support for jute products . 
1.14.   The representative of New Zealand  considered jute to be an environmental good . Alongside 
other textile -based fibr es, jute's natural fibre composition differentiated it from alternative synthetic 
materials. The argument for its consideration in the Environmental Goods Agreement ( EGA) was 
that it was more biodegradable and came from sustainable sources. As indicated by  Bangladesh, 
these fibres could be used for packaging and woven fabric and were particularly useful alternative s 
to shopping bags. This was particularly relevant in places where single -use plastic bags had been 
banned, such as New Zealand. Jute could be a useful inclusion in the environmental goods 
component of the Agreement on Climate Change, Trade and Sustainability (ACCTS) initiative . 
1.15.   The representative of the European Union  noted the importance of Bangladesh's  initiative  and 
encouraged and supported Bangladesh in its efforts to achiev e its sustainable development and 
Agenda 2030 objectives , including environmental and labour aspects.  
1.16.   The representative of the Philippines  thanked Bangladesh for bringing this topic to the 
attent ion of the CTE. Jute was one of the natural plant fibres that could contribute to sustainable 
development . The Philippines produce d natural fibres such as Abaca fibre, coconut fibre and plant 
fibre. As a sponsor of the UN resolution mentioned by Bangladesh , the Philippines encouraged other 
Members to support it. Scaling up th e effort to promote  sustainable production and use of natural 
plant fibres would contribute to the development  of the Philippines . 
1.3  Other  
1.17.   The representative of New Zealand  announced, on behalf of the ACCTS participants, that on 
25 September  2019, in the margins of the UN General Assembly  Leaders ' Week in New York, New 
Zealand, together with Norway, Iceland, Costa Rica and Fiji, announced the launch of the ACCTS 
initiative.  Achieving the Paris Agreement 's goals and addressing the urgent challenge that all nations 
faced in relation to addressing climate change, economic stability and sustainable development 
require d a global economic transformation. This transformation was expected to improve economies 
and lift incomes, as well as improve the environment. However, there was a critical and urgent need 
for countries to act now to achieve these goals.   
1.18.   There were a host of known actions in the trade policy area that c ould contrib ute meaningfully 
to combatting climate change and other serious environmental challenges.  The ACCTS initiative was 
intended to demonstrate in practical terms how trade rules and architecture could  be used to support 
climate and broader sustainable developm ent objectives while generating momentum towards an 
eventual multilateral outcome.  The outcome should ensure mutual supportiveness between trade 
and environmental policies and recogni ze the particular challenge faced by Small Island Developing 
Countries an d their vulnerability to the impacts of climate change.  
1.19.   The ACCTS would  include trade rules that help ed achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement 
and facilitate increased trade that contribute d to sustainable development. The ACCTS would  be fully 
consistent with WTO rules and other international agreements.  It would  include measures such as 
the removal of ta riffs on environmental goods and the establishment of new commitments for 
environmental services; the establishment of disciplines to eliminate harmful fossil fuel subsidies; 
and the development of guidelines to inform and promote the development and imple mentation of 
voluntary eco -labelling programmes and mechanisms.   
1.20.   This treaty -level instrument would  be open to other countries to accede to in the future if they 
were able to meet its obligations.  Ultimately, the aim was that this initiative, achieved init ially 
amongst a subset of WTO Members, then open ed to all who could  meet the established standard, 
would  be a pathfinder to multilateralism. Negotiations amongst the initial cohort of participants were 
expected to begin in March 2020 and w ould be concluded  as swiftly as possible. New Zealand and 
the co-participants remain ed committed to keeping th e CTE  informed of progress and were willing 
to engage further with any Member interested in potential membership.  
1.21.   The representative of Norway  said that given the urgent need for action , governments needed 
to step up efforts towards low emission s, climate  resilience and sustainable economies . Trade had a 
crucial role to play in this transformation. The representative underline d Norway's full supp ort to the WT/CTE/M/68  
 
- 7 - 
 
  multilateral trading system and  invite d other Members to join  ACCTS . The ACCTS should open a 
pathway for multilateralization . 
1.22.   The representative of the European Union  noted that the European Union had  been a 
long-standing  promoter  of mutual supp ortiveness between trade and sustainable development and 
climate objectives. The  president of the new commission  in her political guidelines had made climate 
action one of her top priorities. She  wanted to strengthen Europe's role as a global leader and 
standard setter for a strong, open and fair-trade  agenda . 
2  MEAS AND THE WTO (ITEM 1 OF THE C TE WORK PROGRAMME): MEAS DEALING WITH 
CHEMICALS AND WASTES  (THE BASEL, ROTTERD AM AND STOCKHOLM (BR S) 
CONVENTIONS)  
"The relationship between the provisions of the multi lateral trading system and trade 
measures for environmental purposes, including those pursuant to multilateral 
environmental agreements (MEAs)."  
2.1  BRS Conventions' update  
2.1.  The representative of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm (BRS) Conventions (UNEP)5 
provided an update on the Conference of Parties (CoP) meetings of the BRS Conventions held back -
to-back in April -May 2019. Approximately 1 ,400 delegates from 180 countries attended. At the 
meetings , 29 decisions were adopted under the Basel Convent ion, 17 under the Rotterdam 
Convention and 27  under the Stockholm Convention. Amongst the most significant updates, the 
annexes to the Basel  Convention were amended to add new entries effective 2021  related to plastic 
waste. The general provisions of the C onvention would apply to plastic waste for minimization, 
prevention and environmentally sound management of such waste. In addition, the CoP decided to 
establish a working group  - the Basel Convention partnership on plastic waste - with terms of 
reference adopted in November 2019. This group would facilitate collaboration with other 
international organi zations, including the WTO and the World Customs Organi zation (WCO) on plastic 
waste minimisation and prevention. Further work on plastic waste was underway,  for instance, work 
with the WCO to develop codes under the Harmonised System specific to different kinds of plastic 
waste.  
2.2.  Other updates included the adoption of technical guidelines on Persistent Organic Pollutants 
waste and revised guidelines on electr ical and electronic waste. Under the Rotterdam Convention, 
two new chemicals were listed and would be subject to Prior Informed Consent procedures ; and  
procedures and mechanisms on compliance were adopted, after 15 years of negotiations. Under the 
Stockhol m Convention, the decision on compliance was deferred to the next C oP meeting. The 
following new chemicals were listed: Dicofol and Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and PFOA -related 
compounds with specific exemptions. Other updates concerned already listed ch emicals.  
2.3.  Other joint issues under the BRS Conventions were expected to be reviewed biennially such as 
enhanced cooperation and coordination with other international organi zations including the WTO; 
science to action plan; synergies in combatting illegal t raffic of hazardous chemicals and waste; and 
new programs of work and budget including for technical assistance programs. The next meeting of 
the CoPs would take place in Nairobi, Kenya , in May 2021. Other developments were the entry into 
force of the B an Amendment (adopted in 1995) on 5 December 2019 and the UN Environment 
Assembly (UNEA) scheduled for 2021.  
2.4.  The representative of the European Union  welcomed the decisions on plastic waste under the 
Basel Convention and the decision on the compliance mechani sm under the Rotterdam Convention. 
It was  hoped that the decision for a compliance mechanism under the Stockholm Convention would 
not be deferred further. These decisions would reinforce the implementation of the Conventions.  
 
5 See document RD/CTE/161.  WT/CTE/M/68  
  
- 8 - 
 
  2.2  Members' experience sharing  on circular economy and plastics  
2.2.1   China's b riefing on the Workshop on "Plastic Pollution"  
2.5.  The Ambassador of China  briefed Members on the workshop on plastic pollution co -organized 
by China, Sri Lanka and Morocco during the CTE Environment Week on 25 November 2019. Over 
150 participants representing WTO Members, relevant international organizations, the private sector 
and think -tanks had shared experiences on addressing plastic pollution and b rainstormed on the role 
for the WTO in this process. The WTO Director -General, in his opening remarks, highlighted the 
growing interest among Members in the cross -border implications of plastic pollution and the role of 
international cooperation. He also c overed work of the WTO, including discussion on policies and 
notifications of measures affecting trade in plastics. He emphasized that whether and how to address 
plastic pollution at the WTO would be ultimately determined by Members. The Director -General w as 
committed to support ing all environment -related efforts that Members decided to pursue.  
2.6.  During the panel discussions, representatives of China Plastics Reuse and Recycling 
Association, the World Bank, the BRS Conventions, the World Economic Forum, Nest lé Nespresso, 
the Graduate Institute, UN EP and the WCO shared experience s on work undertaken to combat plastic 
pollution and explained why addressing plastics pollution was a priority, how international 
organizations and industry were responding, and what kind of policies or actions were expected from 
the WTO. This was followed by interventions from Sri Lanka, Morocco, Canada and the 
European  Union who mainly focused on matters taken at the government level and proposed 
government action from a trade perspe ctive. All speakers noted the globalized nature of plastic 
production and pollution which underscored the need for more international cooperation and 
coherence, including in the area of trade. Many also observed that the growing interest in tackling 
plasti c pollution transcended developing and developed Members' boundaries and that progress had 
been made at national, regional and global levels.  
2.7.  The Ambassador noted that all speakers recognized the important role of the WTO in addressing 
plastic pollution a nd proposed various solutions, including but not limited to enhancing transparency, 
strengthening coherence, lowering barriers to sustainable plastics trade, supporting developing 
Members' efforts  to overcom e challenges and enhancing cooperation with relev ant stakeholders. A s 
a possible follow up it was suggested that the WTO Secretariat prepare a study on the global plastics 
economy, plastic pollution  and the multilateral trading system  to provide Members with inputs on 
how the WTO could contribute. Intere sted Members could continue discussion in different 
configurations, including the platform provided by the CTE to chart the way forward. The workshop 
was a first step and  Members were in the driver's seat at the WTO. He urged Members to be good 
drivers wit h a right sense of direction and sound skills to reach the destination safely and efficiently.  
2.8.  The representative of Morocco  thanked the other co -organizers, panellists and participants at 
the workshop. The importance of addressing plastic pollution had b een made evident in the various 
interventions. He said that the workshop helped  to bring into greater focus possible value added 
that the WTO could provide to national and international efforts to tackle plastic pollution. Morocco 
had made efforts through regulations, laws and measures to encourage the gradual elimination of 
plastic pollution. The main lessons learned from national experience was that this was a long -term 
effort that required appropriate technologies and the involvement of society  at large . Demand for 
plastic was rising in Africa. The WTO should therefore be active in the sharing of best practices.  
2.9.  The representative of Canada  thanked the workshop organizers for leadership on plastic 
pollution. The workshop was informative on a critical environmental issue. In the Canada – China 
joint statement on marine litter and plastics, Canada agreed that tackling plastic pollution was a 
pressing global issue that was mobilizing international action. In order to succeed global cooperation 
was critical. Canada looked forward to continuing the discussion on the role  the WTO could play.  
2.10.   The representative of the European Union  said that the w orkshop made clear that all countries 
struggle d with plastic pollution which was one of the big environmental challenges of our time. All 
were determined to tackle plastic pollution. The European Union  supported multilateral avenues and, 
as follow up, coul d support a study on what further could be done on this topic.  
2.11.   The representative of Chad, on behalf of the LDC Group, said that LDCs hoped that initiatives 
such as the workshop could be extended. LDCs had also benefitted from technical assistance on WT/CTE/M/68  
 
- 9 - 
 
  trade  and environment organized by the WTO Secretariat. These workshops provided useful 
information on the circular economy and the linkages between trade and the environment. 
Sustainable development and protection of the environment were fundamental objectives  enshrined 
in the WTO Marrakesh Agreement. This was complementary to the objectives of avoiding 
discriminatory restrictions to trade. Trade was a means to an end. It was important to ensure that 
trade contributed to environmental protection while  helping t o improve  living standards. Food 
security, trade in natural resources and waste management posed new global challenges. Even 
though the Paris Agreement had established a framework for action on climate change, it was 
important for trade to play a role in i mplementing this Agreement. It was essential to take account 
of different levels of development and the specific needs of vulnerable countries such as LDCs. In 
addition, developing and developed countries  should  facilitate technology transfer to LDCs and m ore 
broadly support adaptation to a carbon -free economy. Upsetting the ecological balance could lead 
to soil degradation and desertification with implications for food security and for poor, vulnerable 
populations. Environmental sustainability was therefor e vital for present and future generations. 
Trade policies could benefit the environment and environmental policies could also benefit trade. It 
was important to consider what actions could be taken within the WTO framework to ensure that 
trade could be en vironmentally friendly and promote sustainable development. All stakeholders were 
invited to support LDCs in their bid to address environmental challenges and unleash their 
sustainable development potential. To date, the world had mainly operated in a line ar way, with 
countries  using a finite stock of raw materials and energy to manufacture goods and services. Toxic 
and other waste was generated in this process. There was growing demand for goods with the world 
population set to increase to 9 billion by 203 0. The circular economy was a better response to these 
challenges. LDCs were not waste generators but received waste from other parts of the world. LDCs 
therefore needed support to deal with waste and other environmental challenges.  
2.12.   The representative of Sri Lanka  said that her country was pleased to be a co -sponsor of the 
workshop on plastic pollution. International trade policy should support national efforts to reduce 
plastic production and consumption while encouraging alternatives. Policies already in place included 
import restrictions on single -use plastics; development of new standards and labelling for plastic 
products; extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes such as deposit refunds, product recovery 
and recycling targets; and taxes or fees on  plastic consumption. Also, efforts to reduce plastic use 
in global value chains and policies to promote circular economy were in pla ce. Sri Lanka's first 
attempt to control plastic us e began in 1994 when a Gazette was issued by the Environment Ministry 
to ban polythene, but this was not implemented. Further attempts were made in 2006 and 2017 to 
ban the production and use of polythene sheets and packaging. The burning of plastic and other 
similar combustible material in open spaces was banned. Progress had  been made in tackling plastic 
pollution at different levels. The WTO  could also be a part of this exercise. Technology transfer and 
trade -related capacity building were important to reduce plastic pollution in developing countries.  
2.2.2   Norway's  national poli cy on circular economy, waste and marine pollution  
2.13.   The representative of Norway  provided an outline of its national policy on circular economy, 
waste and marine pollution. She stressed that there was a need for an active circular economy 
policy. A circular  economy could contribute to waste minimization and more sustainable production 
and use of materials such as plastics. Such a policy could also support green competitiveness of 
business and industry. Trad  in waste was , in many cases , necessary because of the need to make 
use of adequate disposal facilities in other countries. Sustainable import and export of waste for 
environmentally sound recycling could ensure more efficient and professional utilization of resources. 
The Norwegian G overnment's strategy on Green Competitiveness in 2017 identified the circular 
economy as a key strategic element for enhancing green competitiveness.  
2.14.   The Norwegian Government had also adopted a dedicated plastic waste strategy  that had 
challenged business, industry and non-governmental organizations ( NGOs ) to identify voluntary 
actions to reduce the use of single -use plastic products and promote innovative alternative solutions. 
The Government was considering a regulation that would  make sorting of plastic and food waste in 
households, business and industry compulsory. More information on the plastic waste strategy was 
available on the internet. Almost 80 % of Norway's waste was either recycled or used to produce 
energy. In addition, the Government sought to further improve waste generation in target areas. 
Norway's national waste treatment capacity for household and industrial waste was generally 
adequate. However, some fractions, such as plastic waste collected from households, were exported 
to European countries due to limited domestic capacity. The European  Union waste directives had 
set ambitious recycling targets of 50 % of household and similar waste from business and industry WT/CTE/M/68  
  
- 10 - 
 
  to be recycled by 2020, and 65 % by 2035. These directi ves were to be implemented in Norway. New 
and strengthened measures were needed to reach these targets. The EU directive on single -use 
plastics and fishing gear was also relevant. Norway intended to implement th e directive as soon as 
possible. The Norwegia n Government's ambition was to develop a national strategy on circular 
economy that would go beyond the current waste and circular economy policies and would introduce 
circular economy aspects more broadly across sectors. This national strategy was still i n its early 
stages, but was expected to cover consumption digitalization, the bio -economy and biomass, public 
procurement, and eco -design including circular plastic production and use.  
2.15.   On marine pollution, plastic waste, and especially plastic litter in th e oceans, represented one 
of the fastest growing environmental challenges of the day. Large volumes of plastic waste were 
sent from developed to developing countries and economies in transition, where there was often a 
lack of adequate treatment facilities . Plastic waste also had low economic value because it was often 
not well -sorted, dirty or mixed with other types of plastic that could not be recycled together. This 
presented a huge challenge. Earlier this year, following a proposal by Norway, supported by 
Switzerland, the E uropean Union, Japan and Uruguay, the Parties to the Basel  Convention agreed to 
amend the Convention to include the transboundary movement of plastic waste. The BRS Secretariat 
had already briefed the CTE on these developments. Norway  welcomed this new development, as it 
would make global trade in plastic waste more regulated, transparent and managed in a safer and 
more environmentally sound manner. There were still gaps in the global governance structure that 
needed to be addressed to reduce plastic pollution in the oceans. In 2017, at UNEA -3, the world 
agreed to the long -term elimination of all plastic waste into the environment.  All Members should  
respond to this call in a coherent and integrated manner. In this regard, the Nordic Min isters of 
Environment , in April 2019 , had issued a political declaration calling for a new global agreement to 
combat marine plastic litter and microplastics. Norway believed that such an agreement would be in 
place by 2023 and sought to partner with like -minded countries to move this agenda forward. In 
October 2019, Norway hosted the "Our Ocean" Conference. The conference was successful, with a 
dedicated session on marine pollution. Norway also pledged money to the new global partnership on 
plastic litter established under the Basel Convention. Given the limits to what national governments 
could accomplish on their own, it was important for WTO Members to support efforts to increase 
transparency and legality in the international trade of plastic waste. Know ledge of sources, pathways 
and impacts of plastic waste and marine litter was growing. However, this issue was complex and 
required many different solutions. One part of the solution could be to raise awareness in the CTE.  
2.16.   The representative of Chad said that the circular economy implied  a transformation of 
production and consumption of resources. It was positive to repair and reuse products. He asked 
Norway to provide an example of circular economy and waste management that benefited LDCs. He 
asked whether Norway could support vulnerable countries in their transition to a circular economy.  
2.17.   The representative of the European Union  said that the E uropean Union supported a 
multilateral agreement to tackle plastics.  
2.18.   The representative of Norway  said th at her delegation  would like to cooperate to get the best 
solution for each country , while recognizing existing resource constraints.   
2.2.3   Switzerland's  present ation on  the Swiss -Colombian Cooperation in the area of 
e-waste Recycling  
2.19.   The representative of Switzerland6 presented  on Swiss -Colombian cooperation in e -waste  
recycling. This was a partnership between the Swiss Federal Institute for Science and Technology, 
the World Resources Forum and was sponsored by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs 
(SECO). E -waste was the fastest -growing waste stream in the world. He said that there were 
opportunities for urban mining and recovery of high value plastics and metals, such as gold, from e -
waste. There were also challenges arising from the informality in e-waste management and the 
threats of environmental pollution and health hazards.  
2.20.   Swiss collaboration in e -waste recycling had started in 2002 in India, China and South Africa 
before it was extended to Colombia and Peru in 2008. In Colombia, there was a h igh degree of 
informality, with limited formal recycling companies, professional knowledge and experience in 
recycling e -waste. In 2008, there was also no policy or legislation, especially on extended producer 
 
6 See document RD/CTE/158.  WT/CTE/M/68  
 
- 11 - 
 
  responsibility. Other challenges faced were la ck of inter -ministerial coordination and successful 
business models in Colombia. However, there were big opportunities for trade and environment. For 
example, gold when extracted from a primary mine yielded about 5 grams per ton, while if properly 
treated and collected, the gold content from mobile phones in secondary (urban) mines yielded 
300 to 350 grams per ton. Companies  had linked -up with recyclers in Colombia. Trade flows were 
important as e -waste could be imported for sorting and exported for refinin g. In addition to the 
Swiss knowledge partnerships in e -waste recycling, SECO was also supporting a Sustainable 
Recycling Industries program across several countries.   
2.21.   In terms of results, Colombia had enacted extended producer responsibility legislation in 2013 
and developed a national policy on e -waste in 2016. Colombia had committed industrial associations 
and numerous individual and collective producer responsibility organizations. In addition, there were 
10 to 15 formal e -waste companies exporting val uable fractions of e -waste. Pilot audits of e -recycling 
companies had been done based on European standards and Colombia had now developed its own 
national standard on e -waste recycling. Over the last 10 years, a number of professionals had been 
trained un der this initiative and there was emerging Swiss -Colombian industrial technology 
cooperation. Further information, including guidelines was available at: sustainable -recycling.org.  
2.22.   The representative of Colombia  thanked the Swiss Government for its develo pment 
cooperation in Colombia. Switzerland was engaged in Colombia through SECO; the Swiss Agency for 
Development and Cooperation  and the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. The global goal for 
the country's 2017 -2020 strategy was to contribute to susta inable peace and economic development 
and this included support for sustainable and inclusive economic development. Switzerland 
supported the circular economy in Colombia and t he national policy on e -waste recycling of 2016. 
Additionally, in 2019, with the  support of Switzerland, the Colombian Ministry of Commerce, Industry 
and Tourism had launched a program for eco -industrial parks which was a circular economy initiative. 
The aim of this program was to improve productivity and the environmental, economic a nd social 
performance of four of Colombia's industrial parks. The program was also aligned with the national 
circular economy strategy launched, in June 2019, by the President of Colombia. The eco -industrial 
park program aimed to serve two goals of the nat ional strategy, namely: to promote competitiveness 
and sustainable trade; and to encourage sustainable urban development and action against climate 
change. The focus was on optimization of industrial processes and to encourage this pilot eco -
industrial par ks initiative to promote formulation and implementation of environmental and industrial 
policies at the national level in Colombia.  
2.23.   The representative of Chad, on behalf of LDCs, said that LDCs often received waste products 
without the capacity to transfo rm or extract value from these products. This had human health and 
environmental consequences. The circular economy was a way to reduce these risks. He asked if 
Switzerland had plans to broaden its cooperation to LDCs and how LDCs could also access the too ls 
developed by Switzerland to the benefit of trade and consumers.  
2.24.   The representative of Switzerland  stated that while Switzerland cooperated with certain 
countries, it was unable to be active in all countries. Switzerland would continue to define priorities 
for support in the future.  
2.2.4   The E uropean Union's takeaways of the first Circular Economy Action Pl an 
(2015 -2019)  
2.25.   The representative of the European Union7 said that the European Union had to work with 
other countries and international organizations to make the circular economy a reality. The circular 
economy offered opportunities for companies from bot h developed and developing countries. It was 
urgent to make the transition to a circular economy a reality, especially in countries at risk of being 
locked into poverty due to environmental degradation. Her delegation was encouraged by the many 
initiatives  at local and regional levels, not least in Africa. The circular economy was a way to maintain 
the value of products, materials and resources in the economy for as long as possible, minimize 
waste generation and boost the economy's competitiveness through new business opportunities and 
the promotion of innovative goods and services while benefitting from social and environmental 
gains. The circular economy made a vital contribution to many S DGs. 
 
7 See document RD/CTE/164.  WT/CTE/M/68  
  
- 12 - 
 
  2.26.   The EU Circular Economy Action Plan sought to build a loop acr oss sustainable production, 
sustainable consumption, waste management, the transformation of waste into a resource and the 
injection of secondary raw materials into production. Five priority sectors had been identified: 
plastics, food waste, critical raw m aterials, construction and demolition, and biomass. The Action 
Plan comprised 54 actions, which were completed between 2015 and 2019. A framework had been 
established to monitor the transition to a circular economy. Employment in circular economy -related 
activities in the European Union had grown by 6 % between 2012 and 2016, totaling around 4 million 
workers. In terms of repair, reuse and recycling, the European Union totaled EUR 147 billion in value 
added and EUR 17.5 billion in investment. Recycling and t he use of recycled materials had been 
growing. But the transition had just begun, as reflected by the 12 % share of recycled materials in 
the total demand for raw materials.  
2.27.   The 54 actions completed under the EU Circular Economy Action Plan spanned the foll owing 
areas: circular design and production processes, empowering consumers, turning waste into 
resources and closing loops of recovered materials. Regarding circular design and production 
processes, the European Union had rules on the placing on the marke t of energy -related products . 
Traditionally, the rules  had focused on the energy efficiency of products. This had changed in 
2016 with the introduction of a new eco -design work programme comprising the durability, 
repairability, upgradability and recyclabi lity and recycled content of energy -related products.  Based 
on the work programme, t he European Union had adopted new rules, including for washing machines 
and refrigerators . The new rules required the availability of spare parts and information  to ensure 
that the products could be repaired . Non -compliant products could not be placed in the EU market. 
Several policies were in place to promote sustainable products . Most of these policies were voluntary. 
Examples included the EU eco -label and guidance on public procurement.  The European Union had 
developed an eco -management scheme that rewarded green organizations and sought to avoid 
greenwashing. However, sustainabl e products remained the exception rather than the norm. The 
European Union had looked at ways to empower consumers to make better choices, including 
through product environmental footprint methods which allowed consumers to compare the 
environmental footpr ints of different products. Work on footprint methods was underway with the 
textile industry. On the consumer side,  an additional  focus had been to improve the rights of 
consumers, notably their legal guarantees  when products broke down . Regarding the goal  of turning 
waste into resources, a n important reform had been the adoption of a new waste framework directive 
with ambitious targets (to recycle 55 % of municipal waste by 2025 and 65 % by 2030  and not to 
landfill more than 10 %of waste). The per capita gene ration of municipal waste in the European Union 
totaled 500 kilograms . Finally, on closing loops or recovered materials, new EU regulations (the 
Fertili zing Products Regulation) facilitated the conversion of biowaste into fertilizing materials, 
reducing th e need for phosphate rock. EU stakeholders had provided input into the EU Circular 
Economy Action Plan. An internet platform – the European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform  
– had been set up to provide references, best practices, and national and regi onal circular economy 
roadmaps to interested authorities and companies.  
2.28.   Among the 54 actions that had been completed, the Plastics Strategy was the first material 
strategy adopted by the European Union to fight marine litter and the threat it posed to biod iversity 
and human health. The goal was to achieve 100 % of reusable and recyclable packaging on the 
EU market by 2030. As part of the Plastics Strategy, the Directive on single -use plastics and fishing 
gear focused on the 10 most common plastic objects fou nd on European beaches. These 10  items, 
along with fishing gear, represented 70 % of the pollution on European beaches. Action under the 
Directive comprise d market restrictions, for example on cotton bud sticks, marking requirements, 
EPR and awareness -raising measures.  
2.29.   Action to increase the number of circular goods and services was among the remaining 
challenges to move towards a circular economy. Most EU me asures in this area were voluntary, and 
circular goods and services were the exception rather than the norm. This meant that consumers 
did not have at their disposal green goods and services. Action was needed to shift production and 
to enhance consumer in centives. Implementing existing legislation and developing markets for 
secondary raw materials were additional challenges. In addition, it was important to exploit the 
synergies between action to promote a circular economy , on the one hand, and action on o ther 
systemic transformations, on the other, not least by using biological resources in a circular way, 
exploiting the synergies with a climate neutral economy, integrating circular economy into the digital 
transformation, reinforcing social and territoria l cohesion and by attracting private finance. Some 
sectors would benefit from greater circularity, including information technology, electronics, 
mobility, construction, furniture, textiles and food and drink.  WT/CTE/M/68  
 
- 13 - 
 
  2.30.   Looking ahead, the new European Commission had  identified a Green Deal as one of its five 
priorities for the period 2019 -2024. The European Green Deal sought to make Europe the first 
climate neutral continent, ensure a sustainable and just transition and preserve Europe's 
environment. The new Presiden t of the European Commission, along with the new Commissioner for 
Environment and Oceans had announced a new circular economy action plan focusing on high -impact 
sectors such as textiles and construction. At the European Parliament hearings, the new 
Commis sioner had also underscored the need to continue reducing the environmental footprint of 
production and consumption and to look at measures to achieve more circularity in the EU economy.  
2.31.   The representative of Chad, speaking on behalf of the LDC Group , said  that the 
European  Union was an important partner of LDCs. Trade flows between the European Union and 
LDCs were increasing. The European Union had put in place the REX system (Registered Exporter 
System) to facilitate access to the EU market. Regarding cir cular economy, it would be important to 
integrate circularity into the LDC industrialization process. Future bilateral and multilateral trade 
agreements covering circular economy should consider special and differential treatment and the 
vulnerabilities of  LDCs. The circular economy had local, national and global dimensions, which had 
to be considered together and without detriment to low -scale circular economy systems existing in 
many LDC villages. The LDC Group would support the European Union's work on c ircular economy.  
2.2.5   China's practice on circular economy  
2.32.   The representative of China  said that China attached importance to working with other 
WTO Members on the topic of circular economy. Regarding plastic recycling in China, it was 
important to shift the mi ndset of people to focus on how to transform waste into a resource and how 
to achieve an efficient closed -loop system. This meant changing behaviour and building successful 
business models. In 2019, China had launched pilot projects in several megacities t o build up closed -
loop systems. The plastic recycling industry in China depended mostly on the informal sector. 
Municipal waste had increased by 50 % over the past 10  years to almost 220 million tons. Due to 
the absence of an adequate waste sorting system, up to 60 % of city waste went to landfill, causing 
land and ground water pollution. Most of the remainder was incinerated, with only a small fraction 
being recycled. Because food waste comprised a large share of city waste, it was important to 
separate food  waste (which was oily and contained lots of water) from dry plastic and other solid 
waste. More than 60 % of incinerated waste was composed of plastic. No infrastructure existed in 
China to operate a closed -loop system for plastic based on EPR. 
2.33.   As exemplified by plastic bottles, the domestic value chain of plastic recycling in 
China  comprised the informal coll ection of waste bottles from low -value, mixed waste. The collected 
bottles were sent to packing stations, sorted and sent to larger sorting and packing stations to 
eventually reach the textile factories where plastic waste was turned into flakes, which cou ld, in 
turn, be used as inputs to produce new bottles. The operation of the value chain relied on low -cost 
labour and did not incorporate environmental costs. As land and labour became more costly, and 
environmental regulation more stringent, the recycling  sector in China was considering ways to 
improve the efficiency of its value chain and increase profitability by focusing on higher -value 
recycled goods, given that low oil prices made virgin plastic cheaper than recycled plastic.  
2.34.   Product design posed an additional challenge for adequate plastic recycling in China. For 
example, beverage bottles still used PVC labels, which could not easily be separated from  
polyethylene terephthalate (PE T) bottles.  The widespread use of mixed materials made sorting more 
difficult. Overpackaging was another challenge. Since China had banned plastic waste imports, 
China's plastic recyclers were trying to reach the domestic collection system and were exploring 
ways to set up regional packing and recycling stations, taking into  account population density, 
environmental regulations, working conditions and the efficiency of transport along the supply chain. 
By using more recycled plastics, high -level brands had established recycling plants in China. They 
played an important role i n boosting demand for recycled plastic and shifting consumer perceptions.  
2.35.   Consumers played a critical role in making a closed -loop system for plastic work. Plastic 
recyclers were encouraging consumers to sort waste and to return to the system the packaging 
resulting from express online deliveries. Online food delivery was rapidly becoming an important 
source of plastic waste in China given its reliance on single -use plastic. Plastic recyclers were 
exploring ways to set up a reverse logistics system  for food delivery, including through digital 
technologies and data platforms, along with the standardization and traceability of the plastic lunch 
boxes used by online food delivery businesses.  WT/CTE/M/68  
  
- 14 - 
 
  2.36.   The representative of Chad, speaking on behalf of the LDC Gro up, noted that the experiences 
of Norway, Switzerland and China could help inform efforts to combat plastic pollution elsewhere.  
2.2.6   United States' submission on "Circular Economy and the WTO"  
2.37.   The representative of the United States8 provided her delegation's  views on how the 
WTO could contribute to reducing waste and creating a sustainable supply of renewable materials 
for global manufacturing. Many WTO Members had policies that supported resource efficiency and 
circular economy approaches. However, there had  been little consideration in the WTO of the role 
trade policy could play in achieving resource efficiency goals. While many WTO Members were 
pursuing circular economy initiatives, some were simultaneously applying trade controls intended 
for hazardous and other wastes to circular economy products such as scrap materials. These policies 
were inconsistent and ultimately counter -productive to building a regenerative circular economy.  
2.38.   As had been outlined in her delegation's written submission to the CTE, the circular economy 
required a supply chain that worked in reverse to channel end -of-life products towards recycling. In 
a reverse supply chain, end -of-life products were collected from consumers, de -manufactured into 
components, then recycled in to scrap materials and finally manufactured into recycled commodities. 
This process closed the loop on waste and created a circular economy. The products and 
intermediaries that moved along the reverse supply chain were sourced from a diffuse consumer 
base and needed a pathway to be aggregated and recycled. Circular economy products needed trade 
policies that facilitated rather than impeded their movement.  
2.39.   Reverse supply chains were no different from other global value chains in terms of the benefits 
of tra de facilitation. The WTO's 2014 World Trade Report  had noted that "keeping tariff and other 
traditional trade barriers low is very important in a world in which inputs cross borders several times 
[since the] costs associated with burdensome border procedur es and longer time to export are 
particularly relevant for time -sensitive sectors such as intermediate goods". The same trade 
facilitation logic that applied to global value chains also applied to reverse supply chains and the 
circular economy. Her delegat ion invited the CTE to revisit the WTO's previous work on trade 
facilitation and global value chains, and to consider how taking a trade facilitation approach to the 
circular economy could advance both the economic and environmental interests of WTO Member s. 
2.2.7   Costa Rica's briefing on the Workshop on "Circular Economy and Trade Advancing 
Economic Development and Combating Climate Change"  
2.40.   The representative of Costa Rica  reported on a workshop co -hosted by the delegations of 
Finland and Costa Rica on "Circular  Economy and Trade – Advancing Economic Development and 
Combating Climate Change",  which had been held on 25 November 2019. Costa Rica and Finland 
were small, open economies that were deeply integrated in global value chains and committed to 
reaching carbo n-neutrality and ambitious climate goals. The circular economy was one tool to 
support those targets. The workshop, which continued the discussion that had started in a session 
organized at the 2018 WTO Public Forum, aimed to underscore that different appr oaches were 
available to create an enabling environment for the transition to a circular economy. It had been 
widely attended by WTO Members and stakeholders alike.  
2.41.   A fair and enabling environment could support business in the transition to circularity, an d 
there was a need to explore options and lessons for scaling up enabling  conditions at the global level. 
Given that the challenges differ ed across countries , the solutions were not one -size-fits-all. There 
were many ways to support the transition to a circular economy , not least good national -level 
coordination, education and behavio ral change, technology and digitalization, innovation, legislation  
and regional cooperation.  The WTO played a significant role – and could be part of the imp lementing 
framework – to help spread solutions that enable d the circular economy around the globe . 
2.42.   During the first part of the workshop, one speaker had referred to the impacts of climate 
change on trade -related infrastructure and productive capacity. A changing climate brought many 
adverse effects, especially in developing countries. The uncertain impacts of climate change would 
further increase the production risks faced by the agricultural sector. Climate change was expected 
to affect both crop and live stock production systems negatively in most regions , resulting in a  
 
8 See document RD/CTE/153.  WT/CTE/M/68  
 
- 15 - 
 
  permanent loss of productive capacity. Rising sea level s, caused by melting ice in the Arctic, among 
other factors, cause d damages in trade -related infrastructure such as roads, ports and harbo rs. 
Overall, trade was important for mitigation and as part of the enabling framework for a circular 
economy . Another speaker had raised the possibility of a work programme to consider further the 
role of the WTO in this regard.  Moving away from the t raditional linear economy based on producing, 
using and discarding products towards a new economic model provide d an opportunity for business, 
trade and job creation , not least in developing countries . 
2.43.    During the second part of the workshop, one speaker h ad referred to Finland 's Circular 
Economy Roadmap, which included more than 60 projects and administrative measures. It was 
important to consider incentives for sustainable and innovative public procurement, new product 
and service innovations and circular  economy investments, along with the role of governments in 
creating an enabling environment for innovations, increasing funding and industry -relevant research 
and making important structural reforms to streamline public services. Another speaker had 
expla ined the many challenges that Namibia faced due to the changing climate. He had provided an 
overview of recent national legislative developments, underscoring the importance of support and 
cooperation. Additional topics included the relationship between th e bio-economy and the circular 
economy, and work in Latin America to better exploit biological resources to produce higher value 
goods and services. It had been suggested that circular economy could be incorporated into the 
African Continental Free Trade A greement.  
2.44.   Discussions had re volved around the  role of trade in supporting the transition to a circular 
economy, impeding barriers and ways to address them, the role of governments in supporting the 
transition and creating an enabling business environment and the opportunities of the transition for 
developing countries. Speakers had identified specific circular economy soluti ons and underscored 
the advantages of a circular economy for business and society, not least in terms of tackling climate 
change. Society could not afford to waste scarce natural resources and materials. Products needed 
to be designed and built in a way th at they were part of a value network where resources were kept 
in the lifecycle for as long as possible to recapture value that would otherwise be lost.  
2.2.8   Canada's briefing on the Workshop on "Circular Economy and the Business 
Perspective " organized by the g roup of Friends of Advancing Sustainable Trade (FAST)  
2.45.   The representative of Canada , on behalf of the FAST Group ( Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, 
European Union, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway , Switzerland and Chinese Taipei ), briefed delegations 
on the Worksho p on circular economy and the business perspective organized by the FAST group  
which had taken place on 26  November  2019. The session, organized with the assistance of the 
International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), sought to add the perspective of the busine ss community 
to CTE discussions on circular economy. The move towards a circular economy would h elp tackle 
global challenges such as climate change. In this regard, global cooperation would be key. Circular 
economy principles were already being adopted aro und the world, in developed as well as developing 
countries. It was the global nature of the issue that made discussions taking place in the CTE so 
important, timely and relevant. The trading agenda of 2050 would be very different from that of 
2020 as comp anies and consumers reacted to changing expectations and imperatives. In this regard, 
time was ripe for delegations to act at the WTO to ensure that the trade policy regime was ready to 
support the transition to a circular economy.  
2.46.   The business community s aw the importance and value towards moving to a circular economy 
model. Collective action was necessary if Members were to successfully implement circular economy 
principles. Incorporating SMEs into the circular economy framework w as important. The importance 
of modifying existing industrial policies to reflect the realities of a world that was moving towards a 
circular future was highlighted. There was no a priori inconsistency between WTO rules and circular 
economy. At the heart of WTO rules was the need to avoid discrimination. If circular economy 
principles were introduced in an origin -neutral manner, there should be no inconsistency with 
existing rules. Businesses were moving towards circular economy models because it made economi c 
sense for them. There was a need for national governments to take steps to prepare their economies 
for the transition to the circular economy model. As part of these preparations, it would be important 
for countries to analyze their trading structures to  identify vulnerabilities and to take steps to address 
them early. The world economy was currently only 9% circular and Members had the opportunity to 
do significantly better.  The representative concluded by noting that FAST looked forward to 
supporting further discussions on this topic in the future.  WT/CTE/M/68  
  
- 16 - 
 
  2.3  Members' discussion  
2.47.   The representative of Chad, speaking on behalf of the LDC Group , noted that all actors along 
the supply chains, not just governments had a role to play in transforming the economy to achiev e 
circularity.  He asked the following questions:  how China ensur ed that all actors could participate in 
the needed transformation ; and  how the United States viewed circular economy approaches in the 
WTO context , and whether the United States could support LDCs with implementation in this area.  
2.48.   The representative of New Zealand  noted that his delegation supported discussions on circular 
economy and trade issues related to plastic pollution. Given the transnational nature of supply chains 
and the market for r ecyclables, these topics were clearly related to trade. Strong interconnections 
existed between the impact of plastics pollution on land and the marine environment, soil 
degradation and climate change, among other issues. It would be worth reflecting on wh y virgin 
plastic was cheaper than recycled plastic, and the incentives for fossil fuels globally that contributed 
to this outcome. Regions and cities around the world were moving to circular economy models, 
including by putting in place effective regulator y settings and incentives. New Zealand had taken 
immediate steps, including banning single -use plastic shopping bags, and was considering 
longer -term solutions. An increased focus on waste minimization and resource recovery could help 
shift to a low -emissi on, circular economy that maximized the recovery and use of materials and 
embedded energy. An economy with "reuse, repair, recycle, recover" at its core provided more job 
opportunities and growth pathways than a disposal -based one.  
2.49.   The representative of th e European Union  noted the link between circular economy models, 
development and the transition to a low carbon and resource -efficient economy, which could help 
mitigate climate change.  
2.50.   The representative of Canada  indicated that Canada was exploring the p otential economic, 
environmental and social opportunities offered by a circular economy and welcomed solutions -driven 
initiatives that could be adapted to different contexts and actors. Canada's most significant federal 
action had been the development and implementation of a zero plastic waste strategy and action 
plan, which sought to keep plastic in the economy and out of the environment by addressing the 
entire lifecycle of plastic. The strategy and action plan supported the vision of the ocean plastics 
charter, which had been advanced by Canada during its G7 presidency in 2017. In addition, Canada 
continued to pursue priorities related to circular economy such as integrating circular economy 
principles into federal procurement, mining and forestry policie s, exploring sustainable finance and 
funding innovation and clean growth. Her delegation was looking forward to showcasing Canadian 
innovation and leadership at the upcoming World Circular Economy Forum, which Canada would co -
host with the Finnish innovati on fund SITRA in the fall of 2020. There had been expressions of 
interest to hold a session on trade and the circular economy at the Forum, along with a side event 
on clean technologies.  
2.51.   The representative of Turkey  said that her delegation supported WTO Members' experiences 
on tackling plastic pollution and circular economy, which were compatible with Turkey's own zero 
waste vision. This initiative was instrumental to achieve the goals of Turkey's waste management 
policy within the framework of a circular economy. Turkey aimed to promote the concept of zero 
waste management throughout the country by 2023. Accessible waste such as paper, glass, plastic 
and metal would be collected and recycled separately, helping to p revent environmental pollution, 
and protect natural resources, while contributing to the economy.  
2.52.   The representative of the United States  responded to the question by Chad on possible 
WTO approaches to the circular economy by referring to the US written su bmission, which also 
contained a series of discussion questions for consideration by WTO  Members. It was important to 
take a trade -facilitative approach when addressing these issues. Regarding Chad's question whether 
the United States could provide support  to Members facing challenges with provisions in new 
agreements or the implementation of commitments in existing agreements, her delegation would 
need to consider this question on a case -by-case basis.  
2.53.   The representative of China  responded to Chad's questi on on how to ensure participation by 
all relevant actors in the transition to a circular economy by indicating that circular economy required 
a fundamental transformation of society and the way it produced, along with a shift in the mindset 
of people. This  was a long -term endeavour. No single business, government or policy could achieve WT/CTE/M/68  
 
- 17 - 
 
  this on its own. Putting in place an EPR scheme could be a possible first step. It was also important 
to engage producers to ensure that products were recyclable. Costs shou ld not only reflect the cost 
of the product itself, but also the costs incurred after disposal, including the cost of recycling. A 
common platform could help stakeholders to engage with each other. The recycling industry's 
membership, which used to be conf ined to companies in the recycling sector, comprised polymer 
companies, NGOs and others besides recycling sector companies. The recycling sector was looking 
to expand its partnerships to include additional sectors, local governments and others.  
2.4  Presentatio ns by international organizations  
2.4.1   World Customs Organization (WCO)  
2.54.   The representative of the WCO said that the WCO was committed to advancing the circular 
economy. WCO had played an important role in supporting WCO members to implement and enforce 
MEAs . WCO provided trade facilitation for linear as well as reverse global supply chains. Rules -based 
principles were important to support efforts by customs administrations to facilitate reverse supply 
chain s. Coping with multiple cross -border restrictions and prohibitions posed serious difficulties, not 
least for e -commerce shipments. The WCO's theme for 2020 would be "Customs Fostering 
Sustainability for People, Prosperity and the Planet". The WCO  would eng age with donors, 
stakeholders and WCO members, especially from developing and least developed countries to 
provide technical assistance and capacity building to support the implementation of MEAs and to 
facilitate the circular economy.  
2.4.2   Organization for Eco nomic Cooperation and Development (OECD)  
2.55.   The representative of the OECD9 said that the OECD's work on circular economy comprised 
four strands. The first strand of work involved macroeconomic modelling to project material 
consumption by 2060, along with the  economic and environmental benefits and labour market 
impacts of resource efficiency policies. The second strand comprised plastic, including plastic 
markets and the nexus with chemicals, criteria for sustainable plastic design, plastic waste 
prevention a nd microplastics. The third strand was on new circular economy business models and 
digitalization. The fourth strand of work focused on the nexus between circular economy and trade, 
including modelling the impacts of a circular economy transition on trade and analyses on trade and 
circular economy policy alignment and circular economy and trade in metals and minerals.  
2.56.   The OECD's Global Material Resources Outlook projected a near -doubling of materials use by 
2060 to 167 gigatons, driven by economic growth. T his increase would have important 
environmental consequences, given that around half of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions could be 
attributed to material management activities and primary materials were much more polluting on 
average than secondary materials in terms of GHG emissions and land and water pollution. There 
was a role to look at how societies could use materials in a more sustainable way, not least by 
closing material loops.  
2.57.   Part of the reason why trade mattered for the circular economy was that ma terials embedded 
in traded goods caused the OECD's total material consumption almost to double. It would therefore 
be important to consider the sustainability of supply chains. Another part of the reason why trade 
mattered for circular economy was that imp ort restrictions were reshaping the plastic waste system. 
Exports that used to go to China had shrunk and were going to other outlets in Southeast and 
South  Asia, or they were no longer traded and were being landfilled in the domestic market. The 
links bet ween circular economy and trade comprised imports and exports in second -hand goods, 
goods for refurbishment and remanufacturing, waste for recovery and in secondary raw materials. 
Services trade was important too because the transition to a circular econom y would have a high 
services content. Possible pressure point arising in the context of these trade flows included : how 
the transition to a circular economy would affect trade; what kind of policy alignment was needed; 
better understanding the nature of tr ade in waste, secondary materials and second -hand goods; and 
the role for international cooperation.  
2.58.   Initial OECD work to model the trade impact of a transition to a circular economy showed that 
trade could contribute significantly to lower material use by  facilitating the shift from primary to 
 
9 See document RD/CTE/163.  WT/CTE/M/68  
  
- 18 - 
 
  secondary materials. Further downstream, additional opportunities existed where trade could boost 
global recycling rates by channelling waste to countries with a comparative advantage in sorting and 
processing. Addit ional opportunities existed in the area of environmental goods and services for 
waste management. Among the trade -related challenges were the definition and classification of 
waste and secondary materials and the regulation of transboundary movements of wa ste, not least 
the proximity principle, export restrictions and the flows of waste to destinations with insufficient 
waste management capacity, illegal waste traffic and the potential for downcycling. Regarding 
higher -value loops, trade could provide addit ional opportunities to promote reused, remanufactured 
and second -hand goods. However, there were challenges too. Exports of second -hand goods could 
be considered a leakage from EPR schemes and other official systems, while second -hand good 
imports could al so lock importing countries into inefficient technologies and slower market 
transformation. The recovery of end -of-life products crossing borders for refurbishment and 
remanufacturing raised additional issues, as those products were often classified as was te. 
Comprehensive data in this area were lacking.  
2.59.   Trade flows would shift in line with structural changes induced by a circular economy . This 
would create opportunities for enhancing resource efficiency via comparative advantage . It was 
important to consid er international standards and mutual recognition on material content, material 
quality, eco -design, recyclability  and repairability , among other areas. Other areas that needed 
attention were the availability of data and the definition and classification o f waste. Innovation and 
digitalization would provide additional opportunities . The OECD would be holding a two -day 
workshop on trade and the circular economy in February 2020 comprising sessions on end -of-life 
value chains and the role of standards, innovation and international cooperation. Forthcoming 
OECD  work would seek to model the impact of the circular economy on trade and investigate the 
need for greater policy alignment between trade and circular economy policies.  
2.60.   The representative  of Norway  said that OECD's work on trade and circular economy was timely 
and relevant to the discussions in the CTE. Her delegation looked forward to the upcoming 
OECD  workshop  on trade and circular economy.  
2.61.   The representative of Canada  welcomed OECD's wo rk to understand the links between trade 
and the transition to a more circular economy. Her delegation looked forward to the upcoming 
OECD  workshop and forthcoming OECD reports on this issue.  
2.62.   The representative of the European Union  said that his delegatio n was looking forward to 
joining the upcoming OECD workshop on trade and circular economy.  
2.4.3   International Organization for Standardization (ISO)  
2.63.   The representative of the International Organization for Standardization  (ISO) noted that a 
new ISO Technical Co mmittee – TC 323 on circular economy – had been created in 2018. The scope 
of the Committee was standardization in the field of circular economy to develop frameworks, 
guidance, supporting tools and requirements for the implementation of relevant activitie s and to 
maximize the contribution of a circular economy to sustainable development. Fifty -nine participating 
ISO members and 13 observing ISO members had joined TC 323 since its inception. The committee 
had met for the first time in Paris in May 2019. It would meet again in Tokyo in 2020. Since the first 
meeting of TC 323 in May 2019, ad hoc groups had met on several occasions to draw consensual 
outlines of the TC's priority projects and to elaborate its strategic business plan. TC 323 had five 
objectives:  (i) to contribute to a timely and effective answer to environmental and social 
emergencies; (ii) to promote an alternative economic model; (iii) to promote a large and effective 
participation from countries from all around the world; (iv) to maximize the contribution to 
sustainable development; and (v) to develop a high quality standard for all stakeholders. In 2020, 
TC 323 would develop projects on: principles of circular economy, guidance to help organizations to 
integrate circular economy into their act ivities, and measuring circularity and alternative business 
models. Further information about TC 323, including detailed information on its membership, could 
be found on the ISO website . 
2.64.   Given the importance of circular economy and its many links to sustainable development and 
the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, a capacity building programme for 
developing countries had been launched as part of the ISO Action Plan for Developing  Countries 
2016-2020. Involving experts from developing countries in ISO's standards development work was WT/CTE/M/68  
 
- 19 - 
 
  a key priority. In the case of TC 323 on circular economy, it was especially important to support 
developing country participation at an early stage. The following phases of the capacity building 
programme had been implemented: increasing participation of developing countries in the new 
committee (currently two -thirds of the participating members of TC 323 were from developing 
countries); raising awaren ess on circular economy via webinars; training developing country experts 
on efficient participation in the ISO standards development process; enabling participants from 
developing countries to attend the first meeting of TC 323; conducting a workshop with  developing 
country experts on how to engage national stakeholders in the standards development work on 
circular economy, including new stakeholder groups such as emerging entrepreneurs, researchers 
and innovators; creating an online platform for developin g countries to exchange and share 
experiences in national stakeholder engagement on circular economy; and raising awareness on 
circular economy as an important topic for developing countries during the ISO annual committee 
for developing country matters in  Cape Town in 2019. Looking ahead, ISO would continue its 
capacity building programme on TC 323 in 2020 through outreach activities to raise awareness on 
relevant standards development work and by ensuring active participation of experts from 
developing co untries at the respective technical meetings of TC 323.  
2.4.4   United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)  
2.65.   The representative of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization  (UNIDO)10 
recalled that his organization was mandated to promote an inclusive and sustainable pattern of 
industrial development in developing countries and to promote international cooperation. The 
circular economy was an industrial economy, hence the focus that UNIDO placed on circular economy 
practices and the promoti on of environmentally sustainable patterns of industrial production. 
Regarding circular economy practices, UNIDO was supporting countries, institutions and firms in 
many activities needed to close loops, not least recycling. UNIDO was involved predominantl y at the 
level of design and manufacturing by promoting: green designs free of persistent organic pollutants 
and ozone depleting substances; more resource -efficient manufacturing practices, not least with 
respect to water, energy and material use; and gree n chemistry and water stewardship. More 
recently, UNIDO had focused on promoting eco -industrial parks, sustainable cities and industrial 
infrastructure, an ideal approach to build supply capacity and achieve agglomeration economies 
while promoting sustaina ble business practices. UNIDO had also been promoting chemical  leasing 
practices.  
2.66.   UNIDO was predominantly a technical cooperation agency, and it also served as a convener 
that helped disseminate best practices in partnership with the OECD, several countrie s and UNEP. 
UNIDO had been intensifying this work in recent years. Circular economy practices were not new 
and a joint UNIDO -UNEP initiative on resource -efficient and cleaner production centres had been in 
place since 1994. There were about 65 independent resource -efficient and cleaner production 
centres around the world. They met regularly to exchange best practices and had built an important 
resource base that could support countries at all levels of development, not least the least -developed 
countries, i n promoting environmentally good practices in industry and moving towards the circular 
economy. The centres promoted the Transfer of Environmentally Sound Technologies (TEST), an 
approach that supported firms in the areas of environmental cost assessment a nd environmental 
management systems. The TEST programme in the Mediterranean was a case in point. It comprised 
capacity building and building a network of national resources, institutions and service providers, 
and work with firms to demonstrate and dissem inate good practices.  
2.67.   UNIDO had shifted gears on eco -industrial parks, partly due to the support of Switzerland and 
other countries. UNIDO worked at both park - and firm -levels. Park -level work provided an 
opportunity to promote collective resource -efficien t and cleaner production solutions through 
common infrastructure, resource supply and social services. There was also a connection with the 
city-level in terms of urban symbiosis, waste management and the promotion of recycling industries. 
The programmes s panned the world. UNIDO had recently prepared a guide on industrial parks jointly 
with other partners. Moreover, it had successfully promoted a chemical -leasing programme. Under 
this programme, firms were encouraged to pay for each square metre of, for exa mple, coated 
services instead of paying for each tonne of powder coating. Along with several United Nations 
agencies and other stakeholders led by the International Telecommunication Union, UNIDO 
participated in the global e -waste coalition. UNIDO implemen ted an important regional e -waste 
programme in Latin America. UNIDO supported efforts to build supply capacities in an 
 
10 See docum ent RD/CTE/160.  WT/CTE/M/68  
  
- 20 - 
 
  environmentally sound manner. More than half of its annual EUR 100 million technical cooperation 
delivery was dedicated to minimizing the  adverse environmental impacts of industrial production 
and promoting good environmental practices.  
2.4.5   Presentation by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP)  
2.68.   The representative of UNEP  provided a briefing on their work to build circularity across sever al 
value chains.11 Several resolutions adopted at UNEA -4, held in March 2019 , were framed around the 
topic of circular economy and how it could contribute to sustainable production and consumption 
and the realisation of the SDGs. These resolutions called fo r UNEP to study how to create circularity 
in the economies of different countries, the ways in which it would help advance the agenda to tackle 
environmental pollution, as well as the implications across different value chains of moving towards 
circularity , with specific references to plastic, textile and construction value chains.  
2.69.   In order to promote circularity in the economy and keep resources in the system for as long 
as possible, UNEP aimed to challenge the way in which the current production and cons umption 
systems operated. Circularity should be conceptualized around the whole value chain, identifying 
barriers to circularity within value chains and focusing UNEP's action to overcome them. Ensuring 
the participation and engagement of all stakeholders along the supply chain was also necessary. 
Finally, the full life cycle of all products, processes and organizations had to be taken into 
consideration. Changes to one part of the chain would have implications through the whole cycle, 
thus requiring proper  foresight and management of consequences.  
2.70.   Closing the loop of resources and materials and keeping resources at their highest possible 
economic values in the system for as long as possible could be realized through many "loops". At 
the "short loop", this would entail interactions between consumers to keep a product close to its 
user and function (e.g. by refusing, reducing or reusing goods). At the "medium" loop, interactions 
between consumers and businesses would be required to e xtend a product lifetime (e.g. by repairing, 
refurbishing or remanufacturing a good). Finally, at the "long loop", business -to-business 
engagement would allow products that lose their original function to be repurposed, recycled or to 
recover their embedde d energy or valuable materials. Each loop would require different policies to 
close the system and enable circularity, either at the local level or involving global value chains.  
2.71.   The representative further shared concrete examples for selected value chain s in which UNEP 
had operationalized this approach to circularity. In the electronics sector, UNEP had promoted public -
private collaboration in Nigeria to respond to infrastructure gaps and to create spaces for 
collaboration to transform e -waste from a prob lem into a resource for the local economy. The project 
would help transform the existing linear system for electronics in the country, feeding products and 
embedded resources back into the economy. Lessons learned with regards to electronic products 
design  would benefit processes well beyond Nigeria, throughout the entire global value chain. 
Producers would be incentivized to redesign their products with circularity suitability in mind. The 
project could be replicated in other countries.  
2.72.   The second value ch ain concerned plastics. Noting that in the current plastic value chain less 
than 10% of plastic products were returned into the economy , UNEP had developed in partnership 
with the Ellen Macarthur Foundation a list of concrete actions that stakeholders from  the private and 
public sector could take to transform the system from linear to circular. Called the New Plastics 
Economy Global Commitment, the project aimed to help identify and address where most significant 
actions could be taken and to inspire sector al leaders to sign on by selecting the actions they would 
commit to. Launched in Bali in 2018, the initiative already counted more than 200 signatories from 
the private sector and 19 from government.  
2.73.   Finally, UNEP had also developed in collaboration with the International Union for 
Conservation of Nature (IUCN),  and with the support of the Life Cycle Initiative (h osted by UN EP), 
a national guidance tool on plastic pollution  to help individual countries identify key "hotspots", which 
constituted barriers to  circularity in the portions of the plastic value chain operating in their 
territories. The guidance offered a methodological framework to identify necessary interventions as 
well as specific responses, including incentives for innovation and new business models, measures 
 
11 See document RD/CTE/166.  WT/CTE/M/68  
 
- 21 - 
 
  targeted at consumption and consumer preferences, product design, as well as infrastructure 
capacity and the suitability of the current waste management system to circularity.  
2.74.   The representative of Bangladesh  queried whether UNEP had indic ated any alternative 
products to the types of plastics that their initiative had suggested should be eliminated.  
2.75.   The representative of Chad, on behalf of the LDC Group , stressed that the move towards a 
circular economy had two main objectives: proposing a  lasting solution to the problem of resource 
and waste management while promoting economic growth . Noting that achieving a circular economy 
would be a fundamental result for the world and that, as long as relevant rules and norms were 
respected, actions to wards this goal were universally welcomed, the representative recalled that the 
particular concerns of LDCs should be taken into account for them to participate actively in the 
movement towards circularity. LDCs had specific challenges unlike those of deve loping or developed 
country Members. They lacked the necessary infrastructure and required human and institutional 
capacity building . They also needed  energy to develop an industry that would rely on  the circular 
economy to diversify and transform their ec onomies . These important factors hamper ed not only  
the economic development of LDCs , but also their pathways towards circularity . The representative 
then queried UNEP on how  LDCs could have their concerns on th e topic heard and on the specific  
actions adopted by the institution aimed at  LDCs.  
2.76.   The representative of European Union  welcomed  UNEP's active role in promoting sustainable 
production and consumption and the transition to a circular economy. A t UNEA -4, sustainable 
production and consumption had been  at the core of the debate and several  important resolutions  
related to circular eco nomy, single -use plastics and marine litter and  sustainable waste management 
had been  adopted . Additionally, the International Resource Panel had published its Global Resource s 
Outlook stressing the urgency of  decoupling  growth from environmental  degradati on and the need 
for the transition to circularity to take place as soon as possible to avoid surpassing planetary 
boundaries. The  European Union  actively and financially support ed UNEP's  work in that regard and 
was working with all Members to put these res olutions to work. The European Union  looked  forward 
to work to continuing the collaboration and invite d all Members to join  to make the transition to a 
circular economy a reality around the world.  
2.77.   The representative of UNEP  first noted that identifying the  implications of alternatives to 
plastic products currently in the market was an area of focus of its work, as mandated by one of the 
resolutions adopted at UNEA -4. Work initially focused on single -use plastic products, aiming to offer 
countries with clear assessments of the implications and the comparative advantages of the different 
alternatives based on a full life cycle assessment approach. Studies were underway for three 
categories of products: plastic bags , plastic bottles and food packaging. Addition al products would 
be tackled from the beginning of 2020. In reaction to the remarks from the delegation  of Chad , the 
representative noted that the issues raised by the delegate had been taken up during the recent 
African Ministerial Conference on the Envir onment. A clear mandate had been given to UNEP  to 
ensure it created a more tailored understanding of what circular economy specifically meant for 
different countries, what transitioning to circularity would entail for them and how to transform this 
knowled ge into concrete action. There was a need to enhance capacity, but also to share the existing 
rich experiences in different countries in order to highlight the variety of different approaches and 
pathways being taken to transition towards circularity as we ll as the efforts that different countries 
had been making to incentivize private sector actors, including micro, small and medium enterprises 
(MSMEs), to  occupy the niches in the value chain that would help close resource loop s. There was a 
clear understa nding on the need to strengthen and further develop countries' infrastructure and  to 
ensure that new infrastructure projects were designed for circularity to avoid locking countries in to 
linear -focused infrastructure. These understandings had since been integrated more clearly into the 
support agenda and work of UNEP.  
2.4.6   Presentation by the International Trade Centre (ITC)  
2.78.   The representative of the  International Trade Centre  (ITC) present ed on its  work related to 
resource efficiency and circular economy in developing countries . ITC understood sustainability, 
resource efficiency and circular production to be central aspects of SMEs competitiveness , in 
particular how they could becom e more efficient in their use of water, waste, energy  and chemicals.  
Since 2018, ITC had  developed a new resource efficiency and circular production approach , which 
was currently being implemented in  several countries .  WT/CTE/M/68  
  
- 22 - 
 
  2.79.   Information was provided  on one of t he beneficiary SMEs in Tunisia, DEMCO, and their recent 
efforts to become more resource efficient and implement circular production processes in relation to 
its textile production.12 In the past, DEMCO had received several environmental and social 
certifica tions and, in  2019, DEMCO had obtained  the Global Recycl e Standard certifying  that 20% of 
the content of the textile s it produced were  made of non -toxic recycled material. These certification 
schemes had enabled the company to achieve  concrete results in terms of environmental impact. 
DEMCO  had been CO 2 neutral since 2017  and it consumed  about  35% less energy , 66% less water 
and 50% less chemicals  than 10 years  ago. In addition, DEMCO had implemented  a waste 
management system.  To move towards ci rcularity, DEMCO had adopted a set of actions that aim ed 
to use natural resources more efficiently, but also to protect the environment , including actions on 
recycling  of its di fferent waste streams. All were sorted, collected and recovered. For example, 
sewage sludge was dried and transformed into paving stones  for sidewalk s. The waste from textile 
cuts was transformed into blankets and rugs and second - and third -choice cloth ing were sent to a 
local company to be transformed into other clothes.  One hundred  percent of DEMCO wastewater 
was treated. Eighty percent of treated water was returned to the manufacturing process. The 
production of one pair of jeans consumed 100 litres of water 10 years ago, and only 34 litres at 
present. However, given that 80% of th e water used in the process was treated wastewater, the 
amount of water consumed in the process was only seven litres. The company aimed to further 
reduce consumption to two litres and, to do so, it was innovating in terms of washing machines.  
2.80.   The path tak en by DEMCO had been remarkable considering its transformation  from a low -
cost mass manufacturer  to a quality and sustainable produc er. Fewer,  but better  and sustainable,  
jeans and knitwear  were produced due  to process  optimization, the reduction of operat ional costs 
and the integration of sustainability criteria in daily operations. As a business -to-business (b2b)  
company , DEMCO supplied other  brands , placing on the market a sustainable product differentiated 
according to four criteria: voluntary offset s of CO2 emissions  and, therefore , carbon  neutral ity; use 
of renewable energies and management of GHG  emissions; 100% wastewater treat ment and 
80% recycl ing; and certifications and labels, several of which ha d been imposed by DEMCO's  
customers.  DEMCO  was facing three main challenges:  markets did not value DEMCO's  efforts in 
terms of circularity and efficient use of resources ; sustainability in the textile industry was a niche  
reserved only to  a few factories in the world ; and international trade rules  were unfair  with unequal 
customs duties between African and Asian countries and restrictions.  The situation  was partially 
reflected in EU import statistics for clothing and textiles with China, Bangladesh, Turkey, India, 
Cambodia, Viet Nam and Pakistan as the main exporters . Tunisia ha d moved into eleventh position 
for th e first half of 2019.  
2.81.   The following possible solutions were envisaged:  a review of international trade  rules to base 
them on green criteria , circularity or more efficient use of natural re sources and decent working 
conditions ; the promotion of  circularity throughout the value chain and not just at the manufacturing  
stage; the imposition of  CO2 neutrality  and decent working conditions  on all textile industries ; and 
sanction ing non-certified and non -sustainable products.  
2.82.   The representative of Chad noted that SMEs were by far the largest group of enterprises in 
the world, representing around 90 -95% of companies and contributing enormously to sustainable 
development and also to jo b creation. Chad thus encouraged ITC's approach and initiatives. Chad 
also noted DEMCO's sustainability efforts and certifications as well as the call for coherence and the 
need to provide the necessary means for circularity to be operationalized. Many of the LDCs were 
from Africa and were dependent on the export of untransformed commodities. He also noted the 
recent ratification of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) , which would facilitate 
trade between  African countries with the removal  of tariff barriers . He recalled that several African 
LDCs produced cotton, in particular the so -called C4 -Mali, Chad, Burkina Faso and Benin - and asked 
whether DEMCO imported cotton from these countries and if it planned to do so in the future. These 
countries exported organic cotton  which was produced without the  use of chemicals  and contributed 
to the preservation of the environment. He queried whether the entry into force of AfCFTA would 
contribute to DEMCO's trade with other African  companies.  
2.83.   The rep resentative of the European Union  noted that the new European Commission would 
pay special attention to circularity in the textile sector and hoped to remain in contact with DEMCO. 
The focus on circular economy had been announced in July by the new Commiss ion President, who  
had stressed the importance of the circular economy in sectors that ha d significant environmental 
 
12 See document RD/CTE/162.  WT/CTE/M/68  
 
- 23 - 
 
  impact s, including the textile industry. The European Environment Agency had published a report in 
November 2019 on the environmental impac ts of textile production . The study  had already provide d 
officials  with a good reference base . The European Union  would work with all instituti ons and 
companies to design a circularity plan for the sector , including at the G7 level, which had adopted 
the Fashion Pact in Biarritz in August  2019.  
2.84.   The representative of ITC informed delegations that DEMCO  imported textile products from 
Egypt, Morocco, Turkey, Spain and Italy  and did not yet import cotton from C4 countries. DEMCO 
was a member of  the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), and thus only imported certified organic cotton. 
The plan was to ensure greater circularity and to be able to increase imports of African organic 
cotton.  
2.5  Presentation by the WTO Secretariat  
2.85.   The representative of the WTO Secretariat13 identified three reasons why trade should be 
considered as part of a circular economy strategy. The first reason was that, in a globalized economy, 
countries increasingly relied on trade to satisfy their demand for final materials. As a resul t, trade 
had a growing influence on countries' efforts to improve resource efficiency. The second reason why 
trade should be considered in circular economy strategies was that trade could help overcome some 
obstacles facing a circular economy, not least by  providing the scale needed by circular economy 
activities such as remanufacturing and recycling. Trade also allowed countries to specialize in circular 
economy activities according to comparative advantage. The third reason to consider trade in circular 
economy strategies was that trade connected demand and supply and thus strengthened the 
incentives for producers to respond to trends in demand for circular products. A related function of 
trade was to bring together demand and supply for technological solu tions that could help accelerate 
the transition to a circular economy. Trade also raised some challenges in the context of a circular 
economy, including waste traffic and the possibility that trade would channel products to places 
without the capacity to m anage them in an environmentally sound manner. An additional challenge 
could result from imports of used or refurbished goods, which might "lock in" the importing country 
to older, less efficient technologies.  
2.86.   WTO notifications were a useful source of info rmation on the interface between trade and 
circular economy. Notified measures related to r ecycling represent ed roughly one -half of all 
WTO notifications related to the circular economy.  Measures related to reuse and repair, bio -based 
alternatives and circular economy technolog ies and innovation each represent ed between 
10 and 15% of all circular economy measures  notified to the WTO , followed by waste -to-energy 
(6% of measures) and refurbishment and remanufacturing (4 % of measures). Of the main 
categories o f measures affecting the circular economy, government support was the most common 
type of measure. This broad category comprise d measures such as grants and direct payments, 
preferential loans and loan guarantees, and income and price support. Technical re gulations, 
standards and conformity assessment procedures were the second most frequent category of 
measure related to the circular economy (with 28 % of all notified measures), followed by trade bans 
and licensing requirements (22 % of all notified measures ). Government procurement was an 
additional tool used by WTO Members to advance a circular economy , as reflected in WTO 
notifications. Regarding the geographical distribution of trade measures related to the circular 
economy, WTO developed and developing Members each represent ed about half of all notified 
measures . 
2.87.   Looking more broadly at other aspects of the WTO's work provided additional insights into the 
interface between trade and circular economy. For  example, it was important to look at the 
WTO rules that were relevant to the broad range of circular economy -related measures adopted by 
WTO Members. WTO work on peer review was an additional element to consider. For example, 
discussions on circular econo my-related topics had taken place in the WTO Committee on Technical 
Barriers to Trade (TBT) and in the context of WTO trade policy reviews (TPRs). The latest TPR of 
Ecuador, which discussed a fee introduced by Ecuador to encourage recycling of PET bottles,  was a 
case in point. Regarding policy dialogue, WTO Members had used the CTE to improve their 
understanding of how trade and circular economy interacted. Examples of such discussions included 
updates on the work under the Basel Convention and exchanges of  national experiences on waste 
management strategies and the economic opportunities associated with e -waste. WTO negotiations 
had also touched on topics related to a circular economy. The EGA negotiations had considered 
 
13 See document RD/CTE/155.  WT/CTE/M/68  
  
- 24 - 
 
  several goods linked to solid waste management and resource efficiency. Moreover, at the time of 
the non -agricultural market access negotiations launched in 2001, WTO Members had discussed how 
to facilitate trade in remanufactured goods. Finally, WTO capacity building and Aid for Trade were 
increasingly focused on sustainability, which provided a good foundation to consider ways that 
WTO capacity building could better support the transition to a circular economy.  
2.88.   The representative of the European Union  said that the presentation by the WTO S ecretariat 
provided a comprehensive way to structure the broad range of circular economy issues and priorities 
discussed in the CTE, and a basis for further work. Integrating additional angles to the Secretariat's 
approach, including the interesting commen ts raised by the United States on reverse supply chains, 
would help lay out a path for CTE participants.  
2.89.   The representative of Bangladesh  asked why the share of waste -to-energy related 
notifications in circular economy notifications was relatively low.  
2.90.   The representative of Morocco  asked the WTO Secretariat to elaborate on the observation 
that Aid for Trade increasingly focused on environmental sustainability issues.  
2.91.   The representative of the WTO Secretariat  said that the relatively low share of waste -to-
energy-related notifications in circular economy notifications could reflect that waste -to-energy had 
fewer linkages to trade relative to other circular economy activities such as recycling or 
remanufacturing. Regarding Morocco's question, it was noted that the joint WTO -UNEP publication 
"Making Trade Work for Environment, Prosperity and Resilience" had shown that Aid for Trade 
disbursements with an environmental objective had been increasing steadily over the past few years.  
2.92.   The Chairperson  asked whether the  WTO Secretariat's work on notifications relating to the 
circular economy contained information on subsidies to plastics and recycling.  
2.93.   The representative of the OECD noted that the attempt to extract information from the WTO 
Environmental Database was ins piring and provided a good basis for further work on the nexus 
between trade and circular economy. More granularity on the information around government 
support and licensing requirements, for example, could be very informative. He asked whether the 
WTO Se cretariat intended to further advance this work and publish it.  
2.94.   The representative of the WTO Secretariat  said that many government support notifications 
related to recycling aimed to help recycling companies to acquire technologies. Regarding plastics, 
most measures contained in the Environmental Database had to do with bans and other 
requirements on single -use plastics, including requirements on biodegradability. Regarding further 
work, he recalled that part of the reason for undertaking this work was to illustrate the potential 
uses of the Environmental Database, as had been requested by some WTO delegations during 
presentations of the database at previous CTE meetings. The WTO Secretariat could look at what 
additional data could help enrich the discussio ns on circular economy. If there were elements that 
the WTO Secretariat could offer that provided more analytical depth, the Secretariat would be 
pleased to consider ways of disseminating this information more widely.  
3  MEAS AND THE WTO (IT EM 1 OF THE CTE WO RK PROGRAMME): CONVENTION ON 
INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN ENDANGERED SPECIE S OF WILD FAUNA AND FLORA (CITES)  
"The relationship between the provisions of the multilateral trading system and trade 
measures for environmental purposes, including those pursuant to mu ltilateral 
environmental agreements (MEAs)."  
3.1  CITES'  update  
3.1.  A representative of CITES  briefed delegations on the main outcomes of CoP 18 held in 
August  2019 in Geneva.14 The CoP had covered over 100 agenda items in 10 days. O ver 3,000 pages 
of working docume nts were made available to the parties in three languages. This meant an 
important undertaking for the Secretariat but also for parties, especially delegations with only one 
or two delegates. Fifty -seven proposals for amendments in the appendices were made , 46 of which 
 
14 See document RD/CTE/154.  WT/CTE/M/68  
 
- 25 - 
 
  were adopted, two withdrawn and nine rejected. Eight new resolutions and 26 revised resolutions 
were adopted. Resolutions were important given that they contained shared interpretations and 
understandings of the operation of CITES. One hundre d resolutions that the parties were expected 
to follow in their implementation of the Convention were in force. Finally, the CoP adopted 357 
decisions setting out the workplan for the Secretariat, parties and CITES bodies until the following 
conference. Ab out half were directed to the CITES Secretariat.  
3.2.   The representative noted the inclusion of some species in Appendix 2 that could be of interest 
to CTE delegates. Following a trend from the past CoP of introducing new, highly traded tree species, 
17 specie s of cedar from Latin America and three from Malawi were listed in Appendix 2. The CoP 
also agreed to include almost 20 new shark species and all known species of sea cucumbers, a 
heavily traded animal, under the control and monitoring of the Convention. A dditionally, the CoP 
had introduced species commonly found in international live pet trade, such as turtles, lizards, 
geckos, iguanas and salamanders. Lastly, giraffes had also been listed under Appendix 2.  
3.3.  It was agreed that additional specimens of the s pecies Pericopsis elata  – namely, plywood and 
transformed wood – should be under the Convention by making a direct reference to the Harmonized 
System (HS) code definition of transformed wood and thus helping control trade in the species. 
Furthermore, under the understanding that these industries w ere not detrimental to the survival of 
the Dalbergia  tree species in the wild and following intense pressure from the orchestra and the 
musical instrument industry as well as difficulties in controlling trade, the CoP decided to exclude 
finished musical in struments as specimens of this species from the Convention scope.  
3.4.  A new resolution (18.6) on the designation and role of management authorities compiled all 
the tasks that national CITES management authorities were expected to undertake and which were 
included in the Convention and different resolutions. The objective was to facilitate the work of 
management authorities who were trying to understand their role and the resources required. 
Another resolution (18.7) adopted some simple definitions and guiding principles on how legal 
acquisition findings were to be made by management authorities when authorizing export of CITES 
listed species.  
3.5.  Among the 357 new decisions, work would continue on CITES e -permitting and authentication 
of permits. This work was important in order to help parties understand how they could expedite 
legal trade and automatize their permitting systems, not unlike the wo rk undertaken under the 
WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA). In the same vein, another decision amended the simplified 
procedures under the Convention, which allowed management authorities to give certain trusted 
traders the possibility to self -authoriz e their transactions under certain specific conditions when there 
was no or very negligible potential impact on the conservation of the species. Further decisions on 
traceability and on improving compliance were also adopted. A new programme called the 
Compliance Assistance Programme was created to systematize assistance provided by the 
Secretariat to countries and parties having difficulties in meeting their obligations under the 
Convention. Additionally, some recommendations were made to ensure importing parties exercise 
due diligence when accepting trade and to guarantee that the provisions of the Convention were 
complied with, even though this was not an express obligation under the Convention.  
3.6.  A new strategic vision for the period from 2021 to 2030 had  been adopted as well as some 
decisions to safeguard specific species such as trade in live elephants from South Africa or on efforts 
to save the remaining 20 live vaquitas left in the Gulf of Mexico. Some species had also been 
transferred from Appendix 2 to Appendix 1, which meant a ban on their commercial trade. Some 
other species were transferred back to Appendix 2, meaning their trade could now be sustainably 
done under the Convention. The decisions and amendments to the appendices had already entered 
into force and the CITES secretariat would soon publicize any reservations made to them.  
3.7.  The next CoP would be held in Costa Rica in 2022. Until then annual meetings of the standing, 
technical and scientific committees would take place in Geneva. A  new onli ne course was available 
at InforMEA15 providing a basic introduct ion to the Convention . The course was less detailed than 
the WTO -CITES eLearning course available on the WTO online platform.16 The Trade for Development 
News of the Enhanced Integrated Framewo rk (EIF) has published an article o n trade in wildlife as a 
 
15 InforMEA is a webpage on information related to multilateral environmental agreements . It can be 
accessed at https://www.informea.org/en . 
16 Accessible at https://wtolearning.csod.com/client/wtolearning/default.aspx .  WT/CTE/M/68  
  
- 26 - 
 
  pathway to sustainable development in poor countries .17 It covered some  critical assumptions  on 
how to combine an approach that value d trade development through aid for trade w ith species 
conservat ion efforts  and what were the essential elements to be considered  when  develop ing trade 
in species included in Appendix 2 of CITES.  
3.8.  The representative of Chad noted and encouraged the valuable work done by CITES to preserve 
nature and endangered wildlife. Throughout the world, several species were at risk of extinction. 
Some countries faced difficult circumstances in their fight against well -organized poachers who had 
access to sophisticated means, often operating at night to avoid surveillance and who caus ed serious 
damage to wildlife. States, including often LDCs, took measures to address the issue, such as mobile 
brigades, but it was extremely difficult to combat poachers. Noting that technologies had advanced 
substantially, he queried whether CITES had p artnered with providers of technological solutions such 
as drones to set up a system to facilitate the detection of poachers and help countries in difficulties. 
While there was a struggle to preserve nature, there was also a need to preserve peasants' sere nity 
and safety to cultivate the land and rear animals for their survival. Often endangered animals could 
destroy fields and farmers would use the means at their disposal to try to preserve their livelihoods. 
He queried how CITES helped States to reconcile  the preservation of these endangered animals with 
the concerns of farmers to live peacefully and in harmony with nature.  
3.9.  The representative of the European Union  noted that CITES was the key global instrument in 
dealing with trade in wildlife commodities and in making sure that this trade was sustainable.  
3.10.   The representative of CITES  noted that the Convention had made important efforts over the 
previous six years or more to help countries combat poaching. Under the umbrella of the 
International Consortium o n Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC) – a partnership between CITES, 
Interpol, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the World Bank and the WCO  - resources and different 
services were provided to countries in different regions of the world, in particular Africa a nd Asia, 
facing challenges in combatting poachers. Support was provided in the form of technologies, capacity 
building, legislative framework and other resources requested. She said that there was potential for 
the use of different modern technologies such  as drones, noting a recent positive experience in 
South Africa, but stressed that funding for the deployment and maintenance of those technologies 
was required. CITES had tried in the past to establish a fund to help develop the use of these 
technologies and to assist countries in difficulties but, unfortunately, the fund had never been fully 
concretized. More work could thus be done on the topic. For the time being, considerable support 
for countries in difficulty was made available under the auspices of the ICCWC. On the issue of 
human -wildlife conflicts occurring when the natural habitat of wildlife was reduced or when drought 
or climate change -related issues forced animals to encroach on rural communities, the 
representative noted that it fell outside t he scope of CITES responsibilities since the Convention 
focused on international trade rather than local issues. However , the Global Environment Fund had 
a vast cooperation program with the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme 
focusing, on the issue and offering solutions.  
3.2  Members' experience sharing  
3.11.   The representative of Canada  informed delegations that, o n 21 June 2019, Canada had 
become the first country in the world to ban the import and export of shark fins that were not 
attached to the body of the shark.18 The ban aim ed to prevent harvesting shark fins that had been  
obtained from the practice of shark finning.  The landmark achievemen t exemplifi ed Canada' s 
ongoing commitment to sustainable fisheries management practices worldwide.  
3.12.   Domestically, Canada promoted trade and sustainability through a wide range of legislation 
that included the Fisheries Act and the Wild Animal and Plant Pro tection and Regulation of 
International and Interprovincial Trade Act, which reflected Canada's commitments under CITES. 
Canada also promoted trade and sustainability globally, through its free trade agreements (FTAs). 
The amendments had entrenched in sect ion 32.1 of the Fisheries Act a ban on the practice of "shark 
finning", the practice of removing the fins from a shark and discarding the remainders at sea, which 
had effectively been banned in Canada since 1994 through Canada's Department of Fisheries and  
Oceans regulatory framework. The ban on the practice was now complemented by the ban on the 
 
17 Accessible at https://trade4devnews.enhancedif.org/en/news/trade -wildlife -pathway -sustainable -
development -poor-countries -critical -assumptions .  
18 See document RD/CTE/159.  WT/CTE/M/68  
 
- 27 - 
 
  import and export of shark fins not attached to the body of the shark. Permits exempting from the 
prohibition could be issued, amended, suspended or cancelled for limited reasons and could include 
the imposition of appropriate conditions.  
3.13.   Driven by the high prices of whole fins, sharks represented a commercially profitable catch. 
Outside of Canada, the shark trade was not well controlled and was often the result of illegal, 
unregulated or unreported fishing. It was widely recognized that shark finning and the impact of 
trade in shark fins had had a devastating impact on global shark populations. More than 63 million 
sharks were estimated to have been killed every yea r from commercial fishing. Scientists estimated 
that sharks were being killed 30% faster than they could replace themselves, which posed a problem 
from both the trade and conservation perspectives. In 2018, Canadian imports of shark fins had 
declined by 48 % since 2005. Canada did not export shark fins.  
3.14.   Canada's shark finning prohibition was the result of over two years of hard work and 
unrelenting advocacy by Canadian Parliamentarians and Senators, government officials, 
stakeholders and Canadians alike. Th e ban had been proposed in April 2017 by Canadian Senator 
Michael L. MacDonald, inspired by the life ’s work of the late Rob Stewart, a Canadian award -winning 
filmmaker and passionate shark conservation advocate. His legacy was reflected in Canada's shark 
finning prohibition. After initially banning only the importation of unattached shark fins into Canada, 
the amendment had been modified to also ban the export of unattached shark fins from Canada. 
Over these years, all political parties in Canada had come t ogether on the issue, highlighting the 
importance of the national prohibition and the necessity to address this global problem.  
3.15.   The Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the Canada Border Services Agency, 
Environment and Climate Change Canada and Glo bal Affairs Canada had been working closely 
together to ensure that the import of shark fins into Canada was not harmful to the survival of the 
species and that any fins imported were not harvested in an unsustainable manner. The Canadian 
Department of Fis heries and Oceans enforced the Fisheries Act and its regulations; fisheries officers 
across Canada conducted enforcement activities through regular patrols on land, sea and air. 
Customs officers enforced import and export rules at the border and the wildli fe enforcement branch 
and its CITES permit policies and operations branch were equally involved in enforcement.  
3.16.   Domestically, Canadian fleets were required to keep shark fins attached to the body of the 
shark until after the shark was offloaded from the ve ssel. Internationally, persons importing into 
Canada or exporting from Canada had to ensure that the shark fins were attached to the body of 
the shark when the fins were offloaded at a Canadian port. Canada had informed trading partners 
and countries, such  as those that were top exporters of shark fins, of this trade prohibition earlier 
in 2019. Canada had notified the WTO through its notifications on Quantitative Restrictions and 
Import Licensing Procedures.  
3.17.   Canada's commitment to sustainable management of  shark stocks and sustainable fisheries 
management was also reflected in its FTAs. An obligation to promote the long -term conservation of 
sharks was encapsulated in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans -Pacific 
Partnership. It was also refl ected in the Canada -US-Mexico Agreement signed in November 2018. 
In that agreement, parties had committed to promote the long -term conservation of sharks "through 
the implementation and effective enforcement of conservation and management measures." Partie s 
had also agreed to adopt or maintain measures designed to prohibit the practice of shark finning. 
Canada would continue to advocate for these commitments in ongoing and future FTA negotiations 
since the problems caused by shark finning were global conser vation issues which benefited from 
collective action.  
3.18.   The representative of the European Union  welcomed the new Canadian measures to address 
shark sustainability, including through FTAs. The European Union was also taking measures on the 
topic. Shark finni ng had been prohibited in EU waters since 2003 for all vessels and everywhere for 
vessels under the EU flag or the flag of one of its member States. The European Union had also been 
engaging in regional actions on the matter and considered traceability of shark products and 
transparent consumer information to be key issues.  WT/CTE/M/68  
  
- 28 - 
 
  4  TRANSPARENCY OF ENVI RONMENT -RELATED TRAD E MEASURES (ITEM 4 O F THE CTE 
WORK PROGRAMME)  
"The provisions of the multilateral trading system with respect to the transparency of trade 
measur es used for environmental purposes and environmental measures and requirements 
which have significant trade effects. " 
4.1  WTO Environmental Database  
4.1.  The WTO Secretariat  provide d an update19 on recent data updated to the WTO  web-based 
Environmental Database (EDB).20 The new web -based platform was still being further improved and 
the Secretariat encouraged delegations to provide feedback and report any issues. One recent 
improvement had been the streamlining of keywords used to  identify environment -related trade 
measures contained in the database. Data was now searchable under this additional criterion. The 
Secretariat would continue to work on the system to further improve and streamline how data was 
inputted into the database.  The database already contained more than 11,400 e nvironment -related 
measures notified from 2009 to 2018 under WTO Agreements and almost 8,000 environment -related 
entries mentioned in Trade Policy Reviews ( TPRs). EDB's yearly update exercise involved the a nalysis 
of around 3,400  notifications and all TPRs published in a given year. On average, more than 500 
new notifications, 1,100 measures and 750 TPR entries were included annually in the database.  
4.2.  The Secretariat briefed delegations on some noticeable ge neral trends regarding 
environment -related trade measures. The number and share of trade measures adopted for 
environmental reasons continued to increase, moving from 8% of all notifications made to the 
WTO in 1997 (one in every 12 notifications) to around  16% in recent years (one in every six 
notifications). Depending on their type, each notification could have anywhere from one single 
environment -related measure (e.g. TBT and Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) notifications) to 
hundreds of pages containing dozens of measures (e.g. some notifications under the Agreement on 
Subsidies and Countervailing measures (ASCM). In that sense, the 663 environment -related 
notifications identified for 2018 contained more than 1,300 environment -related measures.  
4.3.  Three harm onized categories had been developed to facilitate data analysis: types of measures, 
types of sectors and types of environment -related objectives. With regards to types of measures 
adopted, the noticeable rise in the notification of support measures for en vironmental objectives in 
recent years had continued, representing around 41% of all measures identified, while technical 
requirements and specifications and related measures remained important. The three main sectors 
concerned by environmental measures in  2018 had been: agriculture (30.1%); manufacturing 
(26.3%); and chemicals (19.1%). Finally, in terms of environmental objectives pursued, the recent 
trend in energy -related objectives had continued in 2018, with energy conservation and efficiency 
present i n 10.6% of all measures and alternative and renewable energy in 10.2%. Chemical, toxic 
and hazardous substances management remained the main objective pursued by these trade 
measures, accounting for 22.4% of measures notified in 2018.  
4.4.  The Secretariat furth er briefed delegations on possible topic -specific analysis enabled by the 
EDB. One example had been the research on circular economy -related measures identified in the 
EDB that informed the previous Secretariat presentation on the topic during the meeting.  The 
Secretariat further mentioned  the contribution made to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the 
United Nations (FAO) ' Globefish Highlights Quarterly Update with a short article on sustainability 
measures affecting fish trade21, as well as to ongoin g discussions marking the 30th anniversary of 
the Trade Policy Review Mechanism .  
4.5.  Finally, as another example, the Secretariat noted that the number of environment -related 
measures which included the implementation of MEAs as at least one of their objectiv es had 
increased since 2009, from 87 in 2009 to 122 in 2018, with a total number of around 1,100  measures 
in the period. These had been notified by a wide variety of WTO Members, with Hong Kong, China ; 
Australia and Japan as the Members with the most notif ied measures adopted for the implementation 
of MEAs. Developing countries had notified the majority  (65%) of these measures. Apart from the 
objective of MEA implementation, the majority of measures also identified other important 
 
19 See document RD/CTE/156 . 
20 Available at https://edb.wto.org  or www.wto.org/edb . 
21 Available at http://www.fao.org/3/ca5307en/ca5307en.pdf .  WT/CTE/M/68  
 
- 29 - 
 
  environment -related object ives pursued including: plant protection  (41.6%); animal protection 
(25.7%); chemical, toxic and hazardous substances management (25.3%); and ozone layer 
protection (23.3%). The Secretariat clarified that one measure could have more than one 
environment -related objective, which meant that the total percentages for the breakdown by type 
of objective could surpass 100%. The same thing was true for types of measure and sector. The 
sectors more often affected by these measures were chemicals (8.9%), followed by  agriculture 
(7.8%). The top five most notified environment -related measures with the objective of MEAs 
implementation were import licences (607 in total), followed by ban and prohibitions (301), export 
licences (261), technical regulations or specificatio ns (241) and conformity assessment procedures 
(135). In terms of agreements, most measures were notified under the transparency obligations of 
the Agreement on Import Licensing (482), followed by quantitative restrictions notifications (308), 
the TBT (234)  and SPS (52) Agreements and a few under the ASCM (12).  
4.6.  In terms of specific MEAs, the Secretariat noted that CITES was the MEA most often expressly 
mentioned in the 1,107 measures identified, with 268 mentions. The Montreal Protocol (190), Basel 
(97), Rot terdam (84) and Stockholm (78) Conventions were the next most often cited MEAs. The 
Secretariat explained that often measures notified to the WTO would not identify specific MEAs, 
rather simply making a general reference to MEAs implementation. Additionall y, a significant number 
of measures that could be considered to having been adopted for the implementation of MEAs – due, 
for instance to the type of restriction and the products covered – were not expressly mentioned by 
the notifying Member as adopted for  that purpose. These measures were often captured by the 
database but not classified under the MEA implementation objective. Finally, the Secretariat noted 
that half of all measures notified for the implementation of MEAs had been done so by WTO Members 
from Asia. South and Central America and the Caribbean (15.5%), Europe (13.7) and North America 
(7.6) were the next regions with the most notified measures under this objective.  
4.7.  The representative of Canada  expressed her delegation appreciation for the work,  time and 
effort dedicated to developing and improving the EDB. Her delegation had consulted with experts in 
the capital for feedback from users on the database. Experts had found the database to be 
user-friendly, well designed with great graphics and well  organized. Users had also appreciated the 
wide range of filters to locate information and measures. One suggestion to augment the tool's 
efficiency had been to make the notifying member tool more easily accessible on the homepage and 
not a few clicks away .  
4.8.  The representative of the European Union  echoed Canada's remarks and appreciated how the 
EDB was now designed in a very user -friendly manner. He reiterated his delegation's support for 
this continuous work and thanked the Secretariat for briefing delega tions on the potential use of the 
database to develop topic -specific research through the example on the interplay between MEAs 
implementation and trade disciplines in the WTO.  
4.9.  The representative of Chad, on behalf of the LDC Group , echoed Canada's and the 
European  Union's remarks, noting that the EDB was an important tool since it provided useful 
information on Members' trade policies, enhancing transparency and informing debates and 
negotiations at the WTO. He encouraged the Secre tariat to continue its work. He queried whether 
the database was updated on an annual basis or whether information was uploaded as soon as 
environment -related measures were notified. It would be important to update this information as 
soon as possible so t hat Members would have access and use the information in discussions and 
negotiations. He further asked about the methodology used to collect, classify and publish the data.  
4.10.   The representative of New Zealand  joined other delegations in expressing apprecia tion for the 
continued work by the Secretariat to consolidate the complex set of information in the EDB and to 
make it more accessible. Capital -based officials had considered the EDB to be an extremely useful 
resource, which represented an impressive colla tion and categorisation effort.  
4.11.   The representative of the Philippines  echoed Canada's and the European Union's remarks and 
thanked the Secretariat for the excellent work on the EDB. She stated that she would also request 
feedback on the website from offici als in capital.  
4.12.   The WTO Secretariat  welcomed all questions and comments to further improve the database. 
In response to Chad, the Secretariat noted that given the present situation with respect to personnel 
in the Trade and Environment Division, the EDB wa s updated annually. In the past few years, the WT/CTE/M/68  
  
- 30 - 
 
  Division had relied on extra short -term help to bring the EDB fully up to date by uploading data 
equivalent to two yearly updates every year. The ideal would be to have a methodology and 
resources to update da ta as measures were notified to the WTO, but this was not feasible with 
current personnel. On the update methodology, the Secretariat clarified that the analysis was done 
by agreement, starting with the agreement with the most notifications and using a set  of search 
words to filter relevant data. Finally, Members were invited to request assistance to the Secretariat 
on how to use the database. Specific trainings or workshops could be provided.  
5  SERVICES AND THE ENV IRONMENT (ITEM 9 OF THE CTE WORK PROGRAM ME) 
"The work programme envisaged in the Decision on Trade in Services and the Environment. " 
5.1.  The representative of Canada  provided an update on behalf of Australia, Canada, Mexico, 
New Zealand and Switzerland on recent informal discussions that took place unde r the Council for 
Trade in Services in special session (CTSSS) on environmental services in September 2019.  
5.2.   Under the CTSSS, Chile, Mexico, New Zealand and Panama proposed in June 2018 that 
Members exchange views informally on areas of potential interest  in relation to market access, 
against the background of relevant trade, policy and market developments. As part of this initiative, 
Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand and Switzerland facilitated an informal discussion to 
encourage Members to exchange views on key issues related to environmental services and to 
provide valuable information regarding potential market access aspirations. These types of informal 
discussions could also contribute to capacity building and increase awareness of recent trade 
developments.  
5.3.   Environmental services represented a growing sector in world services trade. With a compound 
annual growth rate of 4% from 2008 to 2015, global trade in clean technology, for which 
environmental services played an important role, had doubled  during this period to more than 
US$1.15 trillion in exports. It was important to note that the emergence of new technologies had 
opened a range of new possibilities to provide environmental services on a cross -border basis.   
5.4.   The deployment and the use o f environmental services could support economic growth, 
including for MSMEs, and could help to achieve environmental and sustainable development goals. 
By increasing the accessibility of more advanced technologies for preventing or mitigating 
environmental  harm, trade could contribute to lowering the costs of implementing environmental 
policies while keeping intact their degree of ambition. Trade in environmental services could make 
the prevention and control of pollution cheaper by allowing firms to source  the services they needed 
from foreign suppliers, while creating greater economic benefits.  
5.5.   Further liberalization of environmental services could also provide opportunities for businesses 
in developed and developing countries to integrate into global val ue chains. The uptake of 
technologies linked to environmental services could further create sustainable jobs, especially in 
services related to the installation and maintenance of environmental products, systems and 
infrastructure. In that context, many Me mbers shared their domestic experiences and expressed 
their specific interests and concerns regarding further liberalization of environmental services.  
5.6.  The representative of Switzerland  supported the discussion on environmental services. 
Environmental serv ices trade could contribute substantially to the effective implementation of 
environmental and sustainable development objectives contained in MEAs such as the Paris 
Agreement or the CBD. Services liberalization could have many positive effects on the envi ronment, 
as described by Canada, as well as in the document to the CTSSS. Switzerland supported the 
continuation of this discussion in the CTSSS.  
5.7.  The representative of the European Union  noted that the European Union had committed to 
implement SDGs both in  its internal and external policies, and to become the world's first climate 
neutral continent by 2050. Other policies, including trade policies, should contribute to supporting 
sustainable development. Climate action and circular economy were two key prio rities for the new 
EU commission and further liberalizing trade in environmental services could support those 
objectives. The European Union had good and liberal commitments in environmental services, which 
could be further improved. While there might be l imited scope for market access negotiations on 
services, the idea of advancing discussion on trade liberalization in environmental and climate related WT/CTE/M/68  
 
- 31 - 
 
  services was certainly worth being supported. When considering new commitments, the 
European  Union would welcome a more comprehensive access commitments from other WTO 
Members. Should there be an interest in improving market access negotiations, the European Union 
was open to considering and engaging in any approach that could facilitate progress towards 
negotiated WTO  outcomes.  
5.8.  The representative of Chad on behalf of the LDC Group , said that environmental issues were 
cross-cutting issues affecting many areas, including services, e -commerce, agriculture, and sanitary 
and phytosanitary aspects. The LDC Group was in favour of such a cross -cutting discussion and 
would like the environme nt dimension to become a priority in all relevant WTO agreements.  
6  OTHER BUSINESS  
6.1  Natural disaster s 
6.1.  A representative of the WTO Secretariat  provided some information on the symposium on the 
links between trade and natural disasters held on Friday , 29 Novemb er 2019. The representative 
introduced the topic with two questions that highlighted the complex ways in which natural disasters 
could interact with the trading system: why had an Icelandic volcano appeared in the TPR of the 
East African Community and why had the TPR s of Brazil, Costa Rica and Kenya reported on an 
increase in fossil fuel imports and a decline in hydroelectric power outputs. On the first question, the 
reason was the closure of northern European air space due to v olcanic ash from an  Icelandic  volcano 
which  in turn  created difficulties for East African exporters of fresh cut flowers to get their exports 
into the European Union. The answer to the second question was due to drought in the three 
countries , which reduced hydropower generation outpu t and required fossil fuel imports to the three 
countries. These two examples were some of the anecdotal trade effects that were captured in the 
research that was presented at the symposium.  
6.2.  Specifically, two pieces of research would be presented. First an economic and trade analysis, 
showed that 30% of TPRs between 2010 and 2019 reported the occurrence of natural hazards or 
disasters. The analysis also looked at the frequency distribution of risk factors  that influenced natural 
disasters and their trade i mpacts. The second piece of research comprised a legal mapping which 
looked at the scope under WTO agreements to take trade measures to promote disaster response, 
recovery and resilience. The World Customs Organization, the World Bank and the United Nation s 
Office of Disaster Risk Reduction would comment on that work. Relevant documentation for the 
symposium, including executive summaries of the two studies, were available on the WTO website.  
6.3.  The representative of Canada  thanked the chairman for organizing  a thematic approach for this 
committee meeting. This was a very successful set of meetings and side  events. The topic and format 
were well suited for the discussion of environmental issues and the meeting was extremely 
informative. Canada suggested that a t least once per year a similar approach be followed.  
6.2  Other b riefings by observer organizations  
6.4.  The representative of the OECD22 presented on current trade and environment activities other 
than those  related to the circular economy. He highlighted that the  current activities were divided 
into four workstreams, namely: greening regional trade agreements (RTAs); trade as a channel of 
clean technology diffusion; carbon leakage implications of climate policies in the agricultural sector; 
and new digital technol ogies to tackle trade in illegal pesticides. Concerning the greening RTA 
project, it intended to investigate the ways in which environmental objectives were incorporated into 
various RTA chapters other than environmental chapters. The work on the subsid y chapters had 
been finalized in 2017 -18, and the work on investment chapters was nearly completed. The 2019 -
2020 workstream on greening RTAs would focus on non -tariff measures, technical barriers to trade 
and regulatory cooperation.  
6.5.  The central ques tion of the second project on clean technology diffusion was whether trade 
was considered a channel for such diffusion. The project focused  primarily  on the wind turbine 
manufacturing industry . It comprised an empirical analysis of the extent to which coun tries trade d 
 
22 See document RD/CTE/165.  WT/CTE/M/68  
  
- 32 - 
 
  technolog y, innovation create d a comparative advantage in the market of wind turbine 
manufacturing , and the implications for the low -carbon transition of importing countries.  
6.6.  Concerning the project on carbon leakage in the agricultural sector , the project would provide 
a quantitative analysis to assess the magnitude of th e risk that unilateral implementation of 
ambitious climate policies could lead to carbon leakage . The analys is included the construction of 
indicators on agriculture, forestry , land-use and land -use changes  (AFOLU)  emissions embodied in 
trade. The objective was to measure the amount of emissions from AFOLU activities that crossed 
the border and were not consumed by the generating country . The work also included m odelling 
exerci ses to simulate the effects of carbon taxes on trade in agricultural commodities.  
6.7.  Regarding the project on  trade in illegal pesticides, it explored how new digital technologies 
(blockchain, big data and artificial intelligence) played a role in the tracea bility of  complex  agro-food 
supply chains  and how they had enhanced traditional policy responses to tackle trade in illegal 
pesticides. Moreover, the project investigated the implications for different stakeholders, such as 
pesticide manufacturers, customs  agencies, farmers and final consumers and discussed the benefits 
and costs of implementation. The representative further informed the committee that the OECD 
would continue  its activities on fossil fuel subsidies and that the OECD inventory of support mea sures 
for fossil fuels was being updated and would be available shortly . 
6.8.  The representative of UNEP  updated the committee on recent relevant activities. First, UNEP ’s 
Emissions Gap Report had been released on 26 November  2019. The report warned that unless 
GHG emissions fell by 7.6%  each year between 2020 and 2030 , the 1.5 °C temperature goal of the 
Paris Agreement would be missed. The report highlighted that even if all current unconditional 
commitments under the Paris Agreement were implemented, temp eratures were expected to rise 
by 3.2°C, and that collective ambition needed to increase more than five -fold over current levels to 
deliver the cuts needed over the next decade for the 1.5°C goal.  
6.9.  Second, th e Conference of Parties of the Minamata Conventio n on Mercury took place on 25 -29 
November 2019. Th e Convention, unlike other treaties, contained measures that addressed the 
lifecycle of mercury , including its use in mining and industry, its integration into products  and its 
disposal . On the environment and trade agenda, additional updates were provided  on a UNEP  project 
with the European Commission on Trade in Environmentally Sound Technologies ; an event  co-
hosted  by UNEP  at the WTO Aid for Trade Global Review on "Aid for Trade: a vehicle to build clima te 
resilience? ";  UNEP's work on  the trade and climate resilience  at the upcoming UNFCCC Conference 
of Parties  in Madrid where, together with UNCTAD, UNEP was  co-hosting a high level discussion on 
the role of trade and infrastructure to bring about resilie nce in SIDS ; and the third Oceans Forum, 
which had been co -hosted by UNEP, FAO and UNCTAD and had focused on  ocean economy, climate 
and harmful fish subsidies . 
6.3  Other matters  
6.10.   The Chairperson  of the CTE informed Members that the next meeting of the CTE was 
scheduled for 24 March 2020. Given Members' strong interest on international trade and circular 
economy and plastics, the Chairperson proposed that the March meeting continued its discussion  on 
this. The agenda would remain open to other items under the CTE Work Programme.  
_______________  WT/CTE/M/68  
 
- 33 - 
 
  ANNEX 1: ITEMS OF TH E CTE WORK PROGRAMME  
 
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 multila teral trading 
system.  
Item 3(a):  The relationship between the provisions of the multilateral trading system and 
charges and taxes for environmental purposes.  
Item 3(b):  The relationship between the provisions of the multilateral trading system and 
requirem ents for environmental purposes relating to products, including standards 
and technical regulations, packaging, labelling and recycling.  
Item 4:  The provisions of the multilateral trading system with respect to the transparency of 
trade measures used for e nvironmental 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 agre ements.  
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:  The relevant provisions of the Agreement on Trade -Related Aspects of Intellectual 
Property Rights.  
Item 9:  The work programme envisaged in the Decision on Trade in Services and the 
Environment.  
Item 10: Input to the relevant bodies in respect of appropriate arrangements for relations 
with intergovernmental and non -governmental organizations referred to in Article  V 
of the WTO.  
 
_______________  
 
 WT/CTE/M/68  
  
- 34 - 
 
  ANNEX 2: PARTS OF THE DOHA MINISTERIAL DECLARATION THAT REL ATE TO THE WORK 
OF THE  CTE REGULAR  
 
32.  We instruct the Committee on Trade and Environment, in pursuing work on all items on its 
agenda within its current terms of reference, to give particular attention to:  
 
(i) the effect of environm ental measures on market access, especially in relation to 
developing countries, in particular the least  developed among them, and those situations in 
which the elimination or reduction of trade restrictions and distortions would benefit trade, 
the environ ment and development;  
 
(ii) the relevant provisions of the Agreement on Trade -Related Aspects of Intellectual 
Property Rights; and  
 
(iii) labelling requirements for environmental purposes.  
 
Work on these issues should include the identification of any need  to clarify relevant WTO rules. The 
Committee shall report to the Fifth Session of the Ministerial Conference, and make 
recommendations, where appropriate, with respect to future action, including the desirability of 
negotiations. The outcome of this work as well as the negotiations carried out under paragraph  31 
(i) and  (ii) shall be compatible with the open and non -discriminatory nature of the multilateral 
trading system, shall not add to or diminish the rights and obligations of Members under existing 
WTO agreements, in particular the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary 
Measures, nor alter the balance of these rights and obligations, and will take into account the needs 
of developing and least  developed countries.  
 
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 per form environmental 
reviews at the national level. A report shall be prepared on these activities for the Fifth Session.  
 
51.  The Committee on Trade and Development and the Committee on Trade and Environment shall, 
within their respective mandates, each ac t as a forum to identify and debate developmental and 
environmental aspects of the negotiations, in order to help achieve the objective of having 
sustainable development appropriately reflected.  
 
 
__________