Environmental goods and services are liberalized in paragraph 31, point iii), of the Doha Declaration, which calls for “the reduction or, if necessary, removal of tariff and non-tariff barriers to environmental goods and services” in order to “strengthen mutual assistance between trade and the environment.” WTO members set the following objectives in the negotiations on environmental services (TN/S/23) individually or as a group: compared to other sectors such as tourism, financial services or telecommunications, the level of environmental obligations under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) is modest. This is partly due to the government`s leading role in the delivery of these services. On the other hand, members who have made specific commitments in this sector account for more than 80% of the GDP of all WTO members. In addition, in practice, members` policy may be more liberal than indicated in their engagement plans. Environmental services include sanitation, waste management, sanitation and similar services, vehicle emission reduction, noise reduction services, nature and landscape protection services, and “other” environmental services. The environmental industry has evolved considerably over the past 15 years, due in part to increasing environmental awareness and ever-increasing environmental standards and regulations. Technology has evolved and developed in addition to prevention. As a result, the scope of negotiations in this sector is now wider than that of the Uruguay Round, which ended in 1994. With regard to environmental services, there are no exemptions for the treatment of the measures of the most favoured nation (MFN) (i.e.
non-discrimination). Environmental services will be included in the services negotiations that began in January 2000. More than 40 WTO members at all stages of development have made specific commitments in the area of environmental services. Most have commitments in several subsectors, while some have commitments in all subsectors. Following the Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration of December 2005, a single request was made requesting commitments in all of the aforementioned sub-sectors for environmental services. The application targets new or improved commitments in all four types of procurement, with a focus on Mode 3. Environmental services are an area where most of the trade is done through commercial presence (mode 3), with the presence of individuals (mode 4). As a result of technological change, cross-border supply (mode 1) is gaining in importance in this sector. OECD (2005), “Managing Request-Offer Negotiations Under the GATS: The Case of Environmental Services,” OECD Trade Policy Working Paper No. 11, by M.
Geloso Grosso, TD/TC/WP (2004)8/FINAL, February 15, 2005 More sophisticated searches via the online document search function by defining several search criteria such as the document icon (code, code number), full text search, or document search date. UNCTAD (2003), “Energy and Environmental Services: Negotiating Objectives and Development Priorities,” New York and Geneva, 2003.