The relationship between the WTO and MEAs

FIELD has been involved in work looking at the relationship between WTO rules and Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs). The different agendas of the WTO and MEAs can give rise to potential conflict between the two. WTO rules can often have a 'chilling' effect on the progressive development and implementation of environmental law. Although a formal conflict between WTO and MEA rules has not yet arisen within the WTO, concerns about a potential conflict persist.

WTO members agreed, at the Doha Ministerial meeting, to begin negotiations "on the relationship between existing WTO rules and specific trade obligations set out in [MEAs]". It is hoped that this mandate will provide a genuine opportunity for WTO members to define clearly the relationship between MEAs and WTO rules.

FIELD has completed several papers on this issue for various international NGOs, who have used the papers as a basis for their campaigns on the issue. The Commonwealth Secretariat has also contracted FIELD to produce a report on the progress made under Doha on these and other issues that will be used in the run up to the WTO Cancun Ministerial meeting in September 2003. FIELD lawyers have also attended many meetings and participated in stakeholder dialogues to discuss the WTO/MEA relationship.

WTO rules and Multilateral Environmental Agreements: FIELD and Chatham House, in association with the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), are undertaking a project to identify options for clarifying the relationship between the rules of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) in light of the current round of trade negotiations under the Doha Ministerial Declaration (DMD). We will be producing an options paper with input from a range of policy-makers and practitioners through a questionnaire and interviews. We are convening a group of experts to comment on the draft options paper in preparation for the Hong Kong WTO Ministerial in December and final results will be presented at a meeting at Chatham House in February 2006.

Multilateral Environmental Agreements and the Doha Development Agenda:

Structuring an Approach to the WTO-MEA Relationship FIELD has been approached by WWF to draft a paper on the legal aspects of the Doha negotiating mandate on the relationship between MEAs and WTO rules.

Click here for a Flowchart of Doha Negotiations on Trade and Environment, by Trade Programme Director, Alice Palmer.