 
. /. WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
TN/TE/INF/5 
6 May 2004 
 
 (04-2047) 
Committee on Trade and Environment 
Special Session Original:   English 
 
 
 
ORAL STATEMENT BY THE UNI TED NATIONS CONFERENCE  
ON TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT (UNCTAD)  
 
CTE Special Session Meeting of 19 April 2004  
 
Paragraph 31 (iii) 
  1. We would like to take the opportunity to offer for circulation in the CTE Special Session a 
Report of the Expert Meeting on Definitions and Di mensions of Environmental Goods and Services in 
Trade and Development, organized by UNCTAD in July  last year.  (The Report is available on the 
following web site:  http://www.unctad.org/en/do cs//c1em21d3_en.pdf).  The meeting was convened 
by UNCTAD's Commission on Trade in Goods and Services, and Commodities with a view to assisting our Members in their participation in the negotiations and discussions at the WTO as well as in addressing relevant issues at the national leve l.  H.E. Mr. Dacio Castillo, Ambassador of Honduras 
to the WTO, chaired the meeting.  
2. The meeting was held back-to-back with the pr evious session of the CTE.  At that session, a 
considerable number of delegations expressed interest in the expert meeting and, more generally, in 
UNCTAD's work in this area. 
3. With your indulgence, Mr. Chairman, I would like to say a few words about the meeting 
itself.  More than 130 experts, including from trade and environment ministries, took part in three-day 
discussions.  Most countries were represented by sever al experts.  Some of the largest companies 
operating in the area of environmental services as well as intergovernmental organizations sent their 
experts, too. 
4. The discussions focused on the following issues:  
(a) Trends in the environmental industry in te rms of market structure, supply and demand 
factors and trade flows; 
(b) environmental goods, more specifically issues of definitions and criteria, statistical 
analysis of exports and imports of de veloping countries based on the OECD and 
APEC lists; environmental goods - including certain categories of environment-friendly products - of export interest to developing countries; 
(c) the various categories of environmental services (infrastructure services, professional 
environmental services, services with an environmental component), which require 
different approaches in the negotiations as well as on the domestic front; 
(d) technology-related issues, particularly entire plants and technology systems; TN/TE/INF/5 
Page 2  
 
 (e) systemic issues requiring further analysis, such as: subsidies; government 
procurement; emergency safeguards; regi onal negotiations; linkages between the 
negotiations in NAMA and the CTS, an d linkages with other negotiations; 
(f) ways to ensure that liberalization effort s at the WTO are commercially, financially 
and technically viable, have a clear developm ental benefit and, in this context, the 
role of development assistan ce and capacity building; and 
(g) policy coordination at the national level, in particular concerning complementary 
policies.   
5. The meeting benefitted from and contributed  to capacity building activities and policy 
analysis conducted by UNCTAD.  A seminar in New Delhi, held in May 2003, was instrumental in 
testing various approaches to constructing model lis ts of environmental goods for the purposes of 
negotiations under paragraph 31 (iii) .  Different categories of environmental services provided the 
focus for a whole series of studies and national and regional policy dialogues in several Central American and Caribbean countries, with in the framework of the UK-funded Project on 
Building Capacity for Improved Policy Making and Negotiation on Key Trade and Environment 
Issues.  In a few days, a regional workshop on environmental goods and services and market access 
will take place in the Dominican Republic.  On 17 June, during the 11
th session of UNCTAD in Sao 
Paulo, UNCTAD, in cooperation with UNEP, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the 
Caribbean (ECLAC) and other organizations, will hold a Roundtable on Trade for Sustainable Development, which will, among other things, ad dress issues relating to environmental goods and 
services.  The first issue of UNCTAD's Trade and E nvironment Review, which is currently in print, 
contains two articles on environmental goods and services. 
6. Mr. Chairman, we hope that the CTE Memb ers will find the Report useful in their 
deliberations relating to paragraph 31 (iii) of the Do ha Ministerial Declaration and would be prepared 
to provide additional information to the Committee and its Members upon request. 
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