Items of focus: the regular CTE’s Doha assignment

The 2001 Doha Ministerial Declaration asks the regular Trade and Environment Committee to focus on a number of items in its work programme — work that is separate from the new negotiations on trade and environment that the declaration also launched.

The three areas of focus

Technical assistance. Members are also discussing this and capacity building under paragraph 33 of the Doha declaration.
Environmental reviews. Under paragraph 33, Members are also sharing expertise and experience in this area.
Sustainable development.
Paragraph 51 of the Doha Declaration calls on two committees — the CTE and the Trade and Development Committee — to act as forums for debating the environmental and developmental aspects of the negotiations so that the objective of sustainable development can be achieved. The CTE has an important role to play in examining environmental aspects as trade liberalization proceeds.
CTE report to the 2003 Cancún Ministerial Conference. This was required under Paragraph 32 of the 2001 Doha declaration. The CTE was asked to report on the progress made in discussing the items above, and to make recommendations, where appropriate, on future action, including the desirability of negotiations. The committee has not made any such recommendations.

This report covered the work undertaken by the CTE between the Fourth (Doha) and the Fifth (Cancún) Ministerial Conferences and the reporting requirement under Paragraphs 32 and 33 of the Doha Declaration.

TRIPS = trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights
MEA = multilateral environmental agencies