WTO members begin negotiations on environmental goods

GENEVA, July 8 (Xinhua) -- China, along with other 13 World Trade Organization members including the United States, European Union (EU), Japan, Canada and Costa Rica, would participate in the negotiations on Environmental Goods Agreement (EGA) which were launched here on Tuesday.

The initiative on global free trade in environmental goods was ignited in January in Davos, Switzerland, with the issue of a joint statement from all the 14 participants declaring their commitments to trade liberalization in this regard.

The formal launch of the negotiations after months of preparations marked the first step taken toward a deal to eliminate tariffs on a broad range of green goods, building on the APEC list of environmental goods containing 54 items, whose tariffs would be reduced to 5 percent or less by the end of 2015.

It was introduced that in the first stage of negotiations, members would concentrate on the tariff elimination of environmental goods including those that are energy efficient, and could help clean the air and water and generate renewable energy.

The second phase would see efforts to be made to address non-tariff barriers and environmental services.

The negotiations, open to all WTO members, would take place regularly in Geneva, and would see significant economic benefits and greatly boost environmental protection if a deal were inked.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-07/09/c_133469410.htm