G/TBT/W/650  
8 July 2019 
(19-4512) Page: 1/3 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade  Original:  Spanish  
 
  
EUROPEAN UNION - AMENDMENTS TO DIRECTIVE 2009/28/EC,  
RENEWABLE ENERGY DIRECTIVE  
STATEMENT BY ECUADOR TO THE COMMITTEE ON TECHNICAL BARRIERS TO TRADE  
20 AND 21 JUNE 2019  
The following communication, dated 5 July 2019, is being circulated at the request of the delegation 
of Ecuador . 
_______________  
 
 
1.  Ecuador supports the position of Indonesia, Colombia and Malaysia, and agrees with the analysis 
conducted.  
2.  We consider that the ILUC methodology proposed by the Europea n Union (EU) is unilateral since 
it has not been extensively discussed or endorsed at international level  or sufficiently disseminated, 
and can therefore be considered as a new technical requirement that would covertly affect palm  oil 
production and market ing processes . Ecuador observes a clear technical barrier to trade in this 
methodology.  
3.  It is clear that the EU is seeking to meet legitimate climate -related goals, as are all the other 
countries that signed the Paris Agreement, and they are working in accordance with their own 
national agendas to eliminate deforestation from supply chains as part of their commitment to and 
support for alleviating the e ffects of climate change . However, the rural development capacities of 
predominantly agricultural countries should not be limited, and the restriction of trade through the 
extrajudicial application of national agendas based on non -consensual measures canno t be justified 
by a legitimate environmental objective.  
4.  In this regard, any environmental measure for fulfilling  the European  climate agenda must be 
accompanied by the commitment to make it compatible with the multilateral trading system  – in 
other words, ensuring that the measure would not constitute a means of arbitrary or unjustifiable 
discrimination, or a disguised restriction on international trade.  
5.  Like Colombia, Ecuador consider s that the criteria established would directly affect oil palms but 
not fuels produced from other types of vegetable oil, for instance rapeseed oil or sunflower -seed oil, 
which  is inconsistent with the obligation contained in Article 2.1 of the TBT Agreement and Article  I:1 
of the GATT 1994 . Moreover, since the proposed measure  favours vegetable oils produced in the EU, 
it also violates the principle of national treatment contained in Article 2.1 of the TBT Agreement and 
Article III:4 of the GATT 1994.  
6.  The delegated act, established pursuant to Article 26 of the Directive, provi des for specific 
standards on biofuels, bioliquids and biomass fuels produced from food or feed crops, to address 
what it refers to as emissions produced by indirect land -use change (ILUC) . This methodology and 
the characterizations applied through the est ablishment of general, specific and additionality criteria 
for the certification of biofuels, bioliquids and biomass fuels are not and have not been the subject 
of any agreement or multilateral negotiations , especially with countries that supply  the raw 
materials.  
7.  It should be recalled that under the Paris Agreement related to  the United Nations Framework 
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), each country  establishes its own  targets to reduce 
greenhouse gas emissions . These are  the "national ly determined contributions " (NDCs), in which G/TBT/W/650  
- 2 - 
  each country , while retaining  its sovereignty  and observing the principle of common but 
differentiated obligations  in line with  its developmen t capacities, establishes  its system for control ling 
the expansion of crops at the expense of forests, forage or vegetation with high carbon stock . In 
this regard, Ecuador co nsiders  that the Directive and the subsequent  delegated act run counter  to 
the let ter and spirit of the Paris Agreement, especially Article 3 thereof, which recognizes  "the need 
to support developing country Parties for the effective  implementation " of the Agreement.  
8.  The lack of definition of certain terms relating to I LUC certification  in the EU regulations means 
that it is difficult  for Ecuador to comply with these standards that require significant  technical and 
financial investment , as well as going beyond commitments made at the bilateral or multilateral 
level.  
9.  To date, the European  Commission has not included the ILUC methodology in its calculations of 
greenhouse gas emissions, and therefore fails to comply with the principle of national treatment . 
Third countries cannot be expected to apply a methodology that provides no certainty regarding the 
hypotheses used, benchmarks for oil palm plantations, estimates of greenhouse gas emissions in 
the production of palm oil, or projections concerning the types of land to be used for the expansion 
of oil palm crops . Calculations of deforestation have been carried  out from a global perspective  
without considering differences that exist between individual  cases.  
10.  In this regard, it is important to emphasize that Ecuador has made significant progress in 
meeting  its national targets  and commitments for mitigating  the effects of climate change, as it is 
currently a world leader in the implementation of policies, measures and actions for reducing 
emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) . This commitment has also been 
made  by the Ecuadorian palm -growing sector, which signed an agreement to move towards 
sustainable, deforestation -free oil palm production, with a roadmap setting out clear 
zero-deforestation goals and commitments.  
11.  Ecuador is also the second country in the world to have met the requirements established by 
the UNFCCC to gain access to performance -based payments for reducing emissions from 
deforestation and forest degradation . It is therefore fundamental that such achievements made in 
the context of internatio nal commitments be taken into consideration when establishing this type of 
restriction.  
12.  Specifically, in its REDD+ Action Plan "Forests for Good Living", Ecuador set itself the goal of 
reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation , as evidenced by the results achieved . Our 
average gross annual rate of deforestation was 94,353 hectares in the period 2015 -2016, compared 
with 129,943 hectares in the period 1990 -2000, representing a decrease of 27 %. This has amounted 
to a reduction of over 29  million  tonnes of CO 2 equivalent between 2009 and 2014.  
13.  Attention should also be drawn to the socio -economic effect that unilateral measures can have 
on the oil palm sector in Ecuador, which produced approximately 560,000 tonnes of crude palm oil 
in 2018, the gross production  value of which was USD 326 million , represent ing around 3 % of 
agricultural  GDP. There are approximately 6,568 palm oil producers, of whom 88 % are small 
producers with less than 50 hectares under production  and 5 1% are small producers in small -scale 
family farming with less than 10 hectares  under production.  
14.  The importance of this sector lies in its economic contribution  to the country, with foreign  
exchange earnings from export s of around USD 226  million  in 2018 . Palm oil occupies fifth place in 
agricultural export s from  Ecuador . The sector accounts for some  120,000 direct and indirect jobs 
throughout the production chain, jobs which are stable in t erms of time since the productive lifespan 
can be around 25 years . The oil palm sector pays the unified basic wage plus all statutory benefits.  
15.  In view of the above , Ecuador  calls on the EU to consider its proposal regarding ILUC, since 
internationally agr eed provisions exist regarding the control of deforestation, gas emission s and 
climate change . Environmental measures adopted by Members must not cause additional obstacles 
to trade, especially when there are binding parameters agreed upon at international level to measur e 
countries ' effectiveness  in protecting the environment.  G/TBT/W/650  
- 3 - 
  16.  Another point to bear in mind is that , in accordance with  the TBT Agreement , measures adopted 
by Members should be based on international standards provid ing clear defin itions, not on 
unilaterally established  definitions which require additional technical and economic outlay  to 
implement  them and affect developing countries.  
__________