. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/CTE/GEN/7
11 February 2003
(03-0878)
Committee on Trade and Environment Original:  English
DECISION ON ECONOMIC INCENTIVES AND TRADE POLICY
Communication from the CITES Secretariat
Items 1 & 5
The CITES Secretariat has provided, for WTO Members' information, the Decision on
Economic Incentives and Trade Policy, directed to the CITES Secretariat and adopted at the
12th meeting of the Conference of the Parties in Santiago de Chile, in November 2002.  In particular,
attention is drawn to the first indent (a) regarding a workshop on wildlife trade policies and economic
incentives.1
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Economic incentives and trade policy
Directed to the Secretariat:
The Secretariat should, contingent on the availability of external funding and in collaboration
with the Parties that wish to participate and with the CBD, FAO, Fauna and Flora
International, ICTSD, IFC, IUCN, OECD, TRAFFIC, UNEP-ETB, UNCTAD-BIOTRADE,
the World Resources Institute, the World Bank and the WTO:
(a) organize a technical workshop on wildlife trade policies and economic incentives
applicable to the management of and trade in CITES-listed species, in particular inorder to develop a methodology to review those policies and to make targeted
recommendations on the use of those incentives;
(b) report at the 49th meeting of the Standing Committee the findings and
recommendations of the workshop;
(c) invite Parties to inform the Secretariat, on the basis of the results of the workshop, if
they wish to be included in the trade policy review;
(d) conduct, in cooperation with the Parties, a review of their national policy regarding
the use of and trade in CITES-listed species, taking into account economic incentives,
production systems, consumption patterns, market access strategies, price structures,
certification schemes, CITES-relevant taxation and subsidy schemes, property rights,mechanisms for benefit sharing and reinvestment in conservation, as well as stricter
domestic measures that Parties apply or are affected by;
                                                     
1 At the 8 October 2002 meeting of the CTE Regular, a communication from the CITES Secretariat on
Economic Incentives and Trade Policy was presented and subsequently circulated as WT/CTE/GEN/6.WT/CTE/GEN/7
Page 2
(e) compile and synthesize the information provided by the Parties, and produce a report
analysing the economic impacts of wildlife trade policies in terms of socio-economic
and conservation benefits and costs, economic value, levels of legal and illegal trade,
improvement of the livelihood of local communities, and the role of the private sector
involved in wildlife trade;
(f) report at the 13th meeting of the Conference of the Parties on the progress made with
regard to the implementation of this Decision; and
(g) prepare and submit a project proposal to the Global Environment Facility, and other
funding institutions and development agencies, to seek financial support to prepare
the trade-policy reviews in the selected countries, in the context of their national and
regional strategies for biodiversity conservation.
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