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Trade and environment

Sustainable development and protection and preservation of the environment are fundamental goals of the WTO. They are enshrined in the Marrakesh Agreement, which established the WTO, and complement the WTO’s objective to reduce trade barriers and eliminate discriminatory treatment in international trade relations. While there is no specific agreement dealing with the environment, under WTO rules members can adopt trade-related measures aimed at protecting the environment provided a number of conditions to avoid the misuse of such measures for protectionist ends are fulfilled.

The WTO contributes to protection and preservation of the environment through its objective of trade openness, through its rules and enforcement mechanism, through work in different WTO bodies, and through ongoing efforts under the Doha Development Agenda. The Doha Agenda includes specific negotiations on trade and environment and some tasks assigned to the regular Trade and Environment Committee.

> See introduction to the trade and environment debate

VIDEOS

News back to top

Introduction back to top

WTO rules and environmental policies back to top

Work in the WTO back to top

Negotiations
In the Doha Round, WTO members are negotiating certain aspects of the link between trade and the environment, particularly the relationship between the WTO’s agreements and those of other agencies, and market access for environmental goods and services. These talks take place in “Special Sessions” of the Trade and Environment Committee.
Regular Trade and Environment Committee

The Trade and Environment Committee is the standing forum dedicated to dialogue between governments on the impact of trade policies on the environment, and of environment policies on trade. Created in 1995, the Committee has followed a comprehensive work programme.

Under the Doha Development Agenda, the regular committee is also looking at the effects of environmental measures on market access, the intellectual property agreement and biodiversity, and labelling for environmental purposes.

Trade and climate change back to top

> Download the text of all the climate change pages as a single pdf

Technical assistance back to top

WTO technical assistance on trade and the environment aims to help developing countries participate more effectively in the work of the Trade and Environment Committee and in the negotiations:

External links back to top

Visit the websites of secretariats of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) and other international organizations. A WTO Secretariat background note on existing forms of cooperation and information exchange between the UN Environment Programme/MEAs and the WTO.

A list of observer organizations to the CTE is contained here