HAL Id: hal-01907634
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01907634
Submitted on 29 Oct 2018HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access
archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci-entific research documents, whether they are pub-lished or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers.
L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.
The EGA Negotiations: why they are important, why
they are stalled, and challenges ahead
Jaime de Melo, Jean-Marc Solleder
To cite this version:
Jaime de Melo, Jean-Marc Solleder. The EGA Negotiations: why they are important, why they are stalled, and challenges ahead. 2018. �hal-01907634�
fondation pour les études et recherches sur le développement international
.
VEL
OPPEMENT E
T LA GOUVERNANCE MONDIALE (IDGM).
U CERDI E T À L ’IDDRI. ’É TA T FR ANÇ AIS GÉRÉE P AR L ’ANR A U TITRE DU PROGR A MME «INVESTISSEMENT S D ’A VENIR»
The EGA Negotiations: why
they are important, why they
are stalled, and challenges
ahead*
Jaime de Melo | Jean-Marc Solleder
Jaime de Melo, Scientific Director at FERDI, and Emeritus professor at the University of Geneva. Email : jaime.demelo@unige.ch
Jean-Marc Solleder, University of Geneva.
Email: jean-marc.solleder@unige.ch
Abstract
Decade-long negotiations on the reduction of tariffs on Environmental Goods (EGs) at the Doha Round using a list approach to define EGs, failed to produce an agreement. In July 2014, 14 countries entered plurilateral negotiations under the ambit of the WTO. If successful, the resulting Environmental Goods Agreement (EGA) would have eliminated tariffs on a list of EGs. These negotiations broke down in December 2016. The chapter documents this episode and the mercantilistic behavior of negotiators that prevented agreement on an extended list of EGs, a requirement to conclude a meaningful outcome for the environment.
A conclusion of the EGA negotiations under the current narrow agenda focusing only on tariffs could help build trust
Dev
elopment Po
lic
ie
s
Wo
rkin
236
g Paper
October 20180 100 200 300 400 500 SG P N O R C H E H KG U SA AU S C AN ISL JPN EU N N Z L ISR KO R T U R C R I C H N Nbr. of <3% Nbr. of >10%