INF/TE/IDP/RD/121*  
 
28 March  2023 
(23-2197) Page: 1/3 
 Original: English/anglais/inglés  
 
  
UNOFFICIAL ROOM DOCUMENT1 
DIALOGUE ON PLASTICS POLLUTION AND  ENVIRONMENTALLY  
SUSTAINABLE PLASTICS TRADE  
STATEMENT BY QUAKER UNITED NATIONS OFFICE (QUNO ) 
Plenary Meeting – 13 March  2023 
 
DOCUMENT DE S ÉANCE NON OFFICIEL1 
DIALOGUE ON PLASTICS POLLUTION AND ENVIRONMENTALLY  
SUSTAINABLE PLASTICS TRADE  
STATE MENT BY QUAKER UNITED NATIONS OFFICE (QUNO)  
Plenary Meeting – 13 March 2023  
 
DOCUMENTO DE SALA NO OF ICIAL1 
DIALOGUE ON PLASTICS POLLUTION AND  ENVIRONMENTALLY  
SUSTAINABLE PLASTICS TRADE  
STATE MENT BY QUAKER UNITED NATIONS OFFICE (QUNO)  
Plenary Meeting – 13 March 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 into the working languages of the WTO. They 
are intended for use in WTO meeting rooms and are a ttributed 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 
généralement 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'archivage.  
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 traduce n sistemáticamente a los idiomas de trabajo de la 
Organización. Se distribuyen para su uso en las salas de reunión de la OMC y se les asigna una signatura no 
oficial a efecto s de archivo únicamente.  INF/TE/IDP/RD/121  
 
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QUNO INTERVENTION TO THE DIALOGUE ON  
PLASTICS POLLUTION – PLENARY SESSION  
13 March 2023  
1. Esteemed representatives, honored delegates, and distinguished members of the World Trade 
Organization,  
2. On behalf of the Quaker United Nations Office in Geneva, I would like to extend my sincerest 
gratitude to the co -coordinators and facilitators of the WTO Dialogu e on Plastics Pollution 
(DPP) for their invitation to participate in this plenary session.  
3. In this intervention, I would like to make three suggestions that might spark your interest and 
help inform our vision of a holistic and forward -thinking DPP process .  
4. First:  As we have observed over the last two years, the DPP is well positioned to play an 
important role in leveraging trade and trade policy to address plastic pollution; and today we 
welcome the ambition, as expressed by the DPP coordination to consid er working on text 
proposals that might lead to the creation of a DPP sponsorship, or a Ministerial Declaration 
that contains clear, concrete and pragmatic outcomes and targets for members to undertake 
as we progress towards the WTO's thirteenth ministeria l conference in February 2024.  
5. We echo CIEL’s recommendation that the Ministerial Declaration should promote, for example, 
the compilation of an evolving list of possible environmentally sustainable and effective 
substitutes and alternatives, as expounded by the INC process or its scientific panel; as well 
as technologies, goods, services for environmentally sound and safe waste management and 
clean up as defined by the Basel Convention.  
6. Second:  As we heard earlier today, reducing plastic waste generation i s crucial to protecting 
human health and the environment from plastic pollution, and recycling alone is insufficient. 
To address this challenge, we urge the DPP to encourage further adoption and upscaling of 
new delivery systems, including package -less, re use and refill models (e.g., Algramo), which 
can significantly reduce waste and promote sustainable, toxics -free consumption patterns. 
This can be done, as Rhys mentioned earlier, through the inclusion of these new delivery 
systems in the DPP Ministerial S tatement, along with a compendium of concomitant best 
practices for their adoption and upscaling.  
7. While these new delivery systems have already been adopted in several countries and regions, 
they are not yet widely affordable owing to their high initial c osts of implementation and their 
having not yet achieved the necessary scale of adoption, as is the case with refill systems 
such as Algramo. To overcome some of these barriers, we encourage members to support the 
development of clear, consistent, and effe ctive regulations that promote and incentivize the 
adoption of these systems while ensuring they meet environmental, health, and safety 
criteria; here emphasizing the usefulness and importance of conducting Life -Cycle 
Assessments. It is also important to h ighlight that the adoption of environmentally sound 
plastic substitutes, as defined under the INC process, can further enhance the impact of these 
delivery systems.  
8. Additionally, the DPP could bolster all of these efforts by engaging in collaborative effor ts with 
its sponsors to improve the quantity and quality of data on how DPP members are notifying 
and implementing new reuse and refill delivery systems. T his process could be complementary 
to and in collaboration with other international processes, such a s the ongoing discussions 
towards a new global instrument on plastics at UNEA -5, the International Organization for 
Standardization (ISO), and the Basel Convention.  
INF/TE/IDP/RD/121  
 
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  9. Third:  To meaningfully address the plastic pollution crisis, we must collectively  recogniz e the 
need to reduce plastic production at source — at the very least by eliminating financial 
incentives supporting investment in, and production from, plants that produce virgin plastics.  
10. To date, the DPP has not devoted any significant time to discussin g subsidies to the production 
of plastics. Yet there is sufficient evidence pointing to their existence — in the form of 
subsidized prices for hydrocarbon feedstocks and fuels used in making polymers, and public 
financing of new petrochemical plants — and subsidies are clearly a trade issue. We therefore 
propose that the DPP consider including references to the need to address plastics subsidies 
in its statement to MC13, and that that statement be complimented, for example by a High -
Level Work Plan that see ks, among other aims, to:  
● Reach agreement on what parts of the value chain of making plastic goods should be 
covered by the term "plastics subsidies," and what forms of government support are of 
interest to the group. An important question is what subsidie s to fossil fuels could also 
be considered subsidies to plastics production.  
● Initiate an exercise under which each DPP participant produces an inventory of the 
subsidies to plastics it has provided to its domestic industries, and what financing its 
plastic s industry has received from public entities, including foreign and multilateral 
lenders, over the previous three years. Technical assistance should be provided to 
developing and least developed countries by experts detailed by other countries, the 
WTO Sec retariat, other inter -governmental organizations, or civil society organizations.  
● In parallel, DPP participants could discuss the effects of different types of subsidies — 
separately and in combination — on capacity, output, prices, international trade, an d 
the environment, with the aim of identifying which types of subsidies members should 
be prioritizing for reform.  
11. In conclusion, we believe that these proposals represent a strong starting point for the DPP’s 
work in 2023. At QUNO, we stand ready to conti nue upholding the work of the DPP on this 
critical issue.  
Thank you very much for your time and attention . 
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