INF/TE/IDP/RD/133*  
 
20 June 2023 
(23-4233) Page: 1/4 
 Original: English /anglais/inglés  
 
  
UNOFFICIAL ROOM DOCUMENT1 
 
DIALOGUE ON PLASTICS POLLUTION AND  ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE 
PLASTICS TRADE  
SOLUTIONS TO PLASTIC POLLUTION  - QUNO ’S RESPONSES  
Workshop on reduction and circularity to tackle plastic pollution – 27 April 2023 
 
DOCUMENT DE S ÉANCE NON OFFICIEL1 
 
DIALOGUE ON PLASTICS POLLUTION AND  ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE 
PLASTICS TRADE  
SOLUTIONS TO PLASTIC POLLUTION  - QUNO ’S RESPONSES  
Workshop on reduction and circularity to tackle plastic pollution – 27 April 2023  
 
DOCUMENTO DE SALA NO OF ICIAL1 
 
DIALOGUE ON PLASTICS POLLUTION AND  ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE 
PLASTICS TRADE  
SOLUTIONS TO PLASTIC POLLUTION  - QUNO ’S RESPONSES  
Workshop on reduction and circularity to tackle plastic pollution – 27 April 2023  
______________ _ 
  
 
* In Original language only/En langue originale seulement/En el idioma original solamente.  
1 Documents issued in the RD series are not official WTO documents. They usually appear in their 
language of submission and will not be translated systematically i nto the working languages of the WTO. They 
are intended for use in WTO meeting rooms and are attributed an unofficial symbol for archiving purposes only.  
Les documents de la série RD ne sont pas des documents officiels de l 'OMC. Ils ne paraissent 
générale ment que dans la langue dans laquelle ils ont été communiqués et ne seront pas systématiquement 
traduits dans les langues de travail de l'OMC. Ils sont destinés aux salles de réunion de l'OMC et une cote non 
officielle leur est attribuée à des fins d'archi vage.  
Los documentos de la serie RD no son documentos oficiales de la OMC. Por lo general se distribuyen en 
el idioma en que han sido presentados y no se traducen sistemáticamente a los idiomas de trabajo de la 
Organización. Se distribuyen para su uso en l as salas de reunión de la OMC y se les asigna una signatura no 
oficial a efectos de archivo únicamente.  INF/TE /IDP/RD/133  
 
- 2 - 
 
   
 
 
 
DIALOGUE ON PLASTICS POLLUTION AND ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE PLASTICS 
TRADE  
 
QUAKER UNITED NATIONS OFFICE (QUNO) SUBMISSION  
 
1) Types of trade measures most often used and best practices  
 
Q. What principles and criteria should be taken into account when identifying “best practices” in 
relation to trade -related plastic measures (TrPMs) aimed at reduction to tackle plastic pollution, 
while bearing special attention to issues and challenges arising for developing members, including 
SIDS? 
 
There are many domestic regulations with trade implications, and measures directly targeted at 
trade in plastics or plastic waste that countries use, or may decide to use, motivated by a desire to 
reduce plastic pollution. These currently include, but are not li mited to:  
 
• Product specifications affecting plastics or plastic products sold within a country.  
• Regulations specifying labels or other indications appearing on plastic products.  
• Domestic regulations limiting the use of single -use plastics, particularly in  packaging 
or as carry -all sacs for retail purchases.  
• Deposit -return schemes that cover plastic products, such as beverage containers.  
• Taxes or charges paid by producers or consumers of plastics (including those to 
finance the costs of collecting and recyc ling plastics from).  
• Restrictions on the export of plastic waste.  
• Restrictions on the import of plastic waste.  
• Barriers to trade in services used to collect or treat plastic waste.  
• (For the future) Measures to scale back subsidies to the production of plas tics. 
 
Regarding product specifications and labelling, we believe that best practice when developing these 
is to refer to base them on international standards, when those exist. In the absence of such 
standards, best practice involves consulting with expor ters and potential exporters to avoid 
inadvertent trade effects.  
 
Domestic regulations limiting the use of single -use plastics are likely to benefit developing members, 
including SIDS, by reducing the flow of plastics that reach the marine environment.  
 
In keeping with GATT rules, any taxes that a country levies on plastic resins or products made of 
plastics should be applied equally to domestically produced and imported products.2 
 
Restrictions on the export or import of plastic waste should be consiste nt with rules set out in existing 
multilateral agreements, notably the Basel Convention and its amendments.3 However, allowances 
should be made to enable developing countries, particularly SIDS, to be able to export plastic waste, 
especially that collecte d from their marine environments  to neighbouring countries with the capacity 
to properly recycle or dispose of it.  
 
Services related to the collection and management of plastic debris collected from the marine 
environment include those that intercept plast ics from river mouths, beach -cleaning services, 
services that collect debris from a country’s territorial waters, and those that collect plastic debris 
from international waters. Only beach -cleaning services are currently commercially viable; the rest 
are in pilot or demonstration stages. Nonetheless, a wide range of barriers exist to the development 
of trade in these services, which are in urgent need of expanding.4 Greater information sharing on 
 
 2 GATT Article III:4 . 
3 BC-14/12: Amendments to Annexes II, VIII and IX to the Basel Convention on the Control of 
Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal.  
 4 Hildegunn Kyvik Nord ås and Ronald Steenblik, Policy Brief on Trade in Marine Debris Collection Services  
(Singapore: Asia -Pacific Economic Cooperation Secretariat, Nov. 2022).  
INF/TE/IDP/RD/133  
 
- 3 - 
 
  the benefits of these services, and how barriers to their e xpansion could be reduced, would be of 
great benefit to developing members, including SIDS.  
 
Regarding reducing subsidies, a unilateral decision by an individual country to stop subsidizing plastic 
precursors, or elements of the plants themselves, is unlik ely to materially affect the overall supply 
of plastics to the world market, nor their price. If the world, or a group of major producing or 
consuming members, embarked on negotiations to impose binding disciplines on subsidies 
benefitting plastics product ion, however, it could reduce the supply of or raise the prices of virgin 
plastics.5 
 
Should such disciplines provide special and differential treatment (SDT ) provisions for developing 
countries, and what should they look like? Given that SDT is a well -established principle, any WTO 
agreement on plastics subsidies would need to contain them. Because the over -riding objective of 
such an agreement would be more environmental than competitiveness concerns, the WTO 
Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies furnishes a possible model. For example, in that Agreement, a 
longer period (two years) is allowed for developing country Members, including LDC Members, before 
they are subject to the prohibition of subsidies to a vessel or operator engaged in illegal, unreported 
and unregulated (IUU) fishing, or to fishing related activities in support of IUU fishing for fishing or 
fishing -related activities regarding an overfished stock . Members are also enjoined to “exercise due 
restraint in raising matters involving an LDC Member and solutions explored shall take into 
consideration the specific situation of the LDC Member involved, if any.”  
 
Also pertinent to the consideration of any b inding disciplines on subsidies to plastics is technical 
assistance and capacity -building. 6The WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies established a 
“voluntary funding mechanism”, in cooperation with relevant international organizations, in order to 
help de veloping countries come into compliance with the Agreement, including with its notification 
and transparency requirements.  
 
2) Trade policies and practices requiring realignment with the objective of ending plastic 
pollution.  
 
Q. What are the trade policie s, if any, that are misaligned with the objectives of ending plastic 
pollution to protect human health and the environment, through reduction?  
 
The list of policies that are misaligned with the objectives of ending plastic pollution is likely to be 
long. F or the purposes of this questionnaire, we restrict the example to one: subsidies for the 
production of plastic polymers made from fossil -fuel-derived feedstocks.  
 
Numerous members subsidize the production of fossil fuels, which in the aggregate may be lowe ring 
the global prices of fossil fuels generally.7 Some, especially low -cost producers of fossil fuels, appear 
to be providing petroleum products that form the building blocks of monomers and polymers, at 
prices that are well below export parity prices8, which reduces the cost of producing virgin plastics.  
 
In addition, numerous public financial institutions, such as state -owned public development banks, 
export -credit agencies, and multilateral investment banks, continue to provide concessional 
financing in support of new investments in petrochemical facilities, including those that produce 
plastic precursors or polymers.9 These policies also reduce the costs of producing virgin plastics.  
 
 
5 Ronald Steenblik, “Subsidies and plast ic production: an exploration” (Geneva: Graduate Institute, 
2021). Available from the Swiss Network for International Studies at https://snis.ch/wp -
conten t/uploads/2020/01/2019_Littoz -Monnet_Working -Paper -6.pdf.pdf . 
6 World Trade Organization, “Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies”, Document Nos. WT/MIN(22)/33 and 
WT/L/1144 (Geneva, 22 June 2022).  
7 The Organisation  for Economic Co -operation and Development (OECD) is the only body that 
periodically reports government support to the production of fossil fuels, and covers only its 38 member 
countries plus 12 other economies. See OECD, “Fossil fuel support data and Coun try Notes” at 
https://www.oecd.org/fossil -fuels/data/ , accessed 20 April 2023.  
8 See, for example, Walid Matar, “A look back on Saudi Fossil Fuel incentives in the last decade” 
(Riyadh: King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center, March 2020).  
9 Jakob Skovgaard, Guy Finkill, Fredric Bauer, Max Åhman, Tobias Dan Nielsen, “Finance for fossils – 
The role of public financing in expanding petrochemicals”, Global Environmental Change, Vol. 8 0, 2023, 
102657, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2023.102657 . INF/TE /IDP/RD/133  
 
- 4 - 
 
  3) Unnecessary or harmful plastics and plas tic products most targeted by trade policies, 
including single -use plastics and plastic packaging associated with international trade  
 
Q. What unnecessary or harmful plastics and plastic products, including single -use plastics and 
plastic packaging associated with international trade, are already being targeted by [your] trade 
policies and what are their identification codes under the Harmonized Commodity Description and 
Coding System (HS) (even if those codes currently cover other products )? 
 
We assume that this question is addressed to members only.  
 
4) Criteria used when prioritizing trade action on unnecessary or harmful plastics, plastic 
products and other goods.  
 
Q. Please select from below (and assign a grade of 1 to 5 in order of imp ortance, with 5 being of 
highest importance) the criteria used when prioritizing trade action on particularly unnecessary or 
harmful plastics and plastic products, including single -use plastics and plastic packaging associated 
with international trade . 
 
Note: We have found it difficult to respond to this table, as we are not always sure as to what the 
criteria refer; some criteria are subdivisions of more general ones, and there seems to be overlaps, 
especially among the criteria related to environmental im pacts.  
 
Criterion  Order of importance 
(1 to 5)  
Relative importance in total plastics waste generation  5 
Relative importance in leakage of plastic waste to the environment   
Relative importance of material flows of plastics moved by trade    
Human health and sanitation [effects on]  4 
Environmental damage [avoided as a result of the action]  2 
Risk of pollution [reduction in?]   
Food safety and security  3 
Costs of cleaning up; and losses for tourism, fisheries and shipping   
Potential to negatively impede circularity [how??]   
Single vs multi -use goods [encouraging the shift towards?]   
Multi-material, multi -polymer structure [reduce the amount of?]   
Substitutability for the same functionality and cost effectiveness (incl. 
in the health system)   
Negative impact [on non -plastic materials that can substituted for 
plastics]   
Embedded and related (e.g. transport) GHG -emissions  1 
Technical and economic viability of recycling the product   
Other:   
 
 
__________