G-20 makes progress on environmental goods trade

The G-20 trade ministers have reached an agreement towards developing packages to improve cross-border trade of environmental goods and reduce global excess in manufacturing certain commodities such as steel.    The G-20 trade ministers, who met in Shanghai, China this weekend, said they reached an agreement towards developing packages to improve cross-border trade of environmental goods and reduce global excess in manufacturing certain commodities such as steel.
   U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said the meetings resulted in a “clear path” toward completing the WTO Environmental Goods Agreement by the end of the year. The next meeting of the G-20 leaders to discuss the agreement will be at Hangzhou, China in September.
   The United States is working with 16 other WTO members to advance negotiations on the Environmental Goods Agreement (EGA), which will eliminate tariffs on a wide range of green technologies, such as solar panels and water treatment technologies. G20 members at Shanghai that are also EGA participants included Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, Turkey and the United States.
   The Coalition for Green Trade’s study, “Value of an Environmental Goods Agreement: Helping China Meet Its Environmental Goals,” said the EGA would increase China’s GDP and national income by billions of dollars and result in gains for China of about $659 billion annually in economic benefits linked to improved environmental quality as a result of the EGA-related costs savings.
   According to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the United States exported $130 billion of environmental goods in 2015, and U.S. exports of environmental goods have increased at an annual rate of 4 percent since 2010.
   Global trade in environmental goods is estimated at nearly $1 trillion annually, and some WTO members “charge tariffs as high as 35 percent on these goods, which can add to their cost of deployment significantly,” USTR said.
   “On excess capacity, the G-20 took an important step in the right direction by recognizing that excess capacity is a global issue,” Froman said. “Building on recent U.S.-China bilateral commitments, the G-20 has added to the chorus of voices calling for tackling the root causes of excess capacity for the benefit of both developing and developed countries.”