The General Agreement on Trade in Services back to top
Negotiated during the 1986–94
Uruguay Round, the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)
contains a
“general exceptions” clause, Article XIV, similar to GATT Article
XX.
The GATS article starts with an
introduction (“chapeau”) that is identical to that of GATT Article XX.
Addressing environmental
concerns, paragraph (b) allows WTO members to adopt policy measures that
would normally be inconsistent with GATS if this is “necessary to
protect human, animal or plant life or health” (identical to GATT
Article XX(b)).
As under GATT, this must not
result in arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination and must not
constitute protectionism in disguise.
The Agreement on
Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) back to top
The WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to
Trade seeks to ensure that product specifications, whether mandatory or
voluntary (known as technical regulations and standards), as well as
procedures to assess compliance with those specifications (known as
conformity assessment procedures), do not create unnecessary obstacles
to trade. In its preamble, the Agreement recognizes countries’ rights to
adopt such measures to the extent they consider appropriate — for
example, to protect human, animal or plant life or health, or the
environment.
Moreover, members are allowed to take measures
to ensure that their standards of protection are met. (This is known as
adopting “conformity assessment procedures”.)
Among the agreement’s important features are:
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non-discrimination in the preparation,
adoption and application of technical regulations, standards, and
conformity assessment procedures;
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avoiding unnecessary obstacles to
trade;
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harmonizing specifications and procedures with
international standards as far as possible;
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the transparency of these measures,
through governments notifying them to the WTO Secretariat and
establishing national enquiry points.
The Agreement on
Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) back to top
The WTO Agreement on Sanitary and
Phytosanitary Measures deals with food safety, and human, animal and
plant health and safety regulations.
It recognizes members’ rights to adopt SPS
measures but stipulates that they must be based on a risk assessment,
should not create unnecessary obstacles to trade (should be applied only
to the extent necessary to protect human, animal or plant life or
health), and should not arbitrarily or unjustifiably discriminate
between members where similar conditions prevail. The Agreement
encourages members to adapt their SPS measures to the areas (regions,
countries or parts of countries) that supply their imports.
The SPS Agreement complements the Technical
Barriers to Trade Agreement. It allows members to adopt SPS measures for
environmental purposes, but subject to such requirements as risk
assessment, non-discrimination and transparency.
The Agreement on
Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual property (TRIPS) back to top
The WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of
Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) refers explicitly to the
environment in Section 5, which deals with patents.
It says (in paragraphs 2 and 3 of Article 27 —
Arts 27.2 and 27.3 for short — of Section 5) that members can make
certain inventions ineligible for patenting:
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To protect human, animal or plant life or
health, to avoid serious harm to the environment. A member can
exclude an invention from patentability if it believes the invention
has to be prevented (within its territory) for these and certain other
objectives.
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Plants and animals. Micro-organisms
have to be eligible for patenting. So do non-biological and
microbiological processes for the production of plants or animals.
Invented plant varieties have to be also eligible for protection
either by patenting, or by an effective system specially created for
the purpose (“sui generis”), or a combination of the two. Otherwise,
plants and animals do not have to be eligible for patenting.
These provisions are designed to address the
environmental concerns related to intellectual property protection.
The TRIPS Agreement allows members to refuse
to patent inventions that may endanger the environment (provided their
commercial exploitation is prohibited as a necessary condition for the
protection of the environment). For ethical or other reasons, they can
also exclude plants or animals from patentability, subject to the
conditions described above.
The Agreement on
Subsidies and Countervailing Measures back to top
The Agreement on Subsidies, which applies to
non-agricultural products, is designed to regulate the use of subsidies.
Under the Agreement, certain subsidies referred to as “non-actionable”
are generally allowed. Amongst the non-actionable subsidies that had
been provided for under Article 8 were subsidies used to promote the
adaptation of existing facilities to new environmental requirements
(Article 8.2(c)). However, this provision expired in its entirety at the
end of 1999. It was intended to allow members to capture “positive
environmental externalities” when they arose.
The Agreement on
Agriculture back to top
Adopted during the 1986–94 Uruguay Round, the
WTO Agriculture Agreement seeks to reform trade in agricultural
products, and provide a basis for market-oriented policies.
In its preamble, the agreement reiterates
members’ commitment to reform agriculture in a manner that protects the
environment.
Under the agreement, domestic support measures
with minimal impact on trade (known as “green box” policies) are allowed
and are excluded from reduction commitments — they are listed in Annex 2
of the Agreement. Among them are expenditures under environmental
programmes, provided that they meet certain conditions. Again, the
exemption enables governments to capture “positive environmental
externalities”..
Relevant decisions back to top
Two ministerial decisions addressing
environmental issues were adopted at the end of the Uruguay Round.
A ministerial
Decision on Trade and
Environment created the
Committee on Trade
and Environment (CTE) with the aim of making international trade and
environmental policies support each other. The decision contains the
work programme of
the CTE.
Ministers also adopted a
Decision on Trade in
Services and the Environment. It instructs the CTE to examine
and report on the relationship between services trade and the
environment, including the issue of sustainable development, in order to
determine if any modifications of
GATS Article XIV are
required. The CTE has taken up this issue as part of its work programme.
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