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The WTO Doha Development Agenda states that “international trade can play a major role in the promotion of economic development and the alleviation of poverty.”  Enhanced market access and financed technical assistance for developing countries are important elements of this goal. Ecolabelling schemes - that is, labels that help consumers to identify environmentally preferable products - present both opportunities and challenges for developing country exporters and are, thereby, part and parcel of the international trade, environment and development debate.

At the OECD Global Forum Workshop on Environmental Requirements and Market Access, held in New Delhi, India on 27-28 November 2002, (hereafter “the New Delhi workshop”), participants discussed a series of case studies prepared by the OECD Secretariat (hereafter “the OECD case studies”) examining environmental labelling requirements in regards to developing country exports. Several developing country participants expressed concerns that both voluntary and regulatory environmental labelling and certification programmes may not be taking local market conditions and capacities into account, which they perceived as a barrier to developed country markets.

This paper seeks to enhance understanding of the perceived and actual difficulties faced by exporters in developing countries wishing to qualify for certain selected ecolabelling schemes. It is based on material drawn from the New Delhi workshop, including the OECD case studies, several of which examine environmental labelling, and a number of personal, telephone and internet interviews with a range of participants from both developed and developing countries. The ecolabelling programmes selected for this study were chosen on the basis of their application to products of export interest to developing countries, as well as the extent of their international acceptance by producers and consumers.

The first part of this study reviews various types of ecolabelling programmes, and assesses the opportunities they present. The second part examines five different ecolabelling programmes in depth. The third part identifies issues that may affect the ability of developing country exporters to participate in ecolabelling schemes, and assesses how each of the selected programmes has dealt with these issues, as well as how developing country producers and exporters have fared under each programme.

Several points are worth noting at the outset.  First, while ecolabelling programs can be a useful tool for countries wishing to achieve sustainable development, it is beyond the scope of this paper to assess the environmental effectiveness of these programs.  Second, this paper does not attempt to quantify the economic impacts of ecolabelling programs on developing countries.  Given the number of variables that affect changes in trade flows between countries from one year to another, it is impossible to isolate trade flow changes due to ecolabelling programs without conducting a sophisticated econometric analysis – an operation which is also beyond the scope of this paper.  Finally, it is important to note that the views expressed in this paper are solely those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of OECD members.