Objectives

Co-organised by the OECD Joint Working Party on Trade and Environment and the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with financial support from the European Union, the workshop was held on 23-24 January 2018, in Santiago, Chile, the workshop focused on key issues related to Regional Trade Agreements (RTA) and the environment, including: (i) an introduction to RTAs and the environment; (ii) international and regional experience; (iii) ex-post evaluation; (iv) the role of public participation; and (iv) greening RTAs on investment.

• To disseminate recent work undertaken by the Joint Working Party on Trade and Environment (JWPTE) on RTAs and the environment among relevant stakeholders within and beyond OECD countries.
• To highlight relevant issues on RTAs and the environment that could be of particular interest to the region.
• To provide an occasion to establish a stakeholder dialogue on RTAs and the environment.

 

Documents and presentations

• Draft Agenda
• Speakers' biographies
• Summary Record

 

Session 1: RTAS AND THE ENVIRONMENT – SETTING THE SCENE

• 1.1 Analysis of RTAs and the environment by the JWPTE, Shunta Yamaguchi, Policy Analyst, OECD Environment Directorate
• 1.2 Environmental provisions in RTAs: the current state of play, Jose-Antonio Monteiro, Research Economist, Economic Research and Statistics Division, World Trade Organization / Spanish version

Session 2: INTERNATIONAL AND REGIONAL EXPERIENCE ON RTAS AND THE ENVIRONMENT

• Roundtable: Regional practices in incorporating environmental provisions

Session 3: EVALUATION OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF RTAS

• 3.1 NAFTA’s experience in assessing the implementation of environmental provisions, César Rafael Chávez, Executive Director, Commission for Environmental Cooperation
• 3.2 Experience on ex-ante and ex-post evaluation of environmental provisions in RTAs of the European Union, John Bazill, Policy Officer, DG Trade, European Commission
• 3.3 Regional efforts on ex-post analysis of environmental provisions in RTAs, Oscar Ceville, Sustainable Development Officer, Department of Sustainable Development, Organization of American States

Session 4: RTAS AND THE ENVIRONMENT: THE ROLE OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

• 4.1 Public submissions related to the environmental under CAFTA-DR, Jorge Guzmán, General Coordinator, CAFTA-DR Secretariat for Environment Matters, Guatemala
• 4.2 Experience on public participation from the EU-Costa Rica FTA, Alejandra Aguilar, Environmental Coordinator, General Directorate of Foreign Trade, Costa Rica (Spanish version) 
• 4.3 Public access to information and data collection related to environmental aspects - Environmental Information System of MERCOSUR (SIAM), Julio Baena, Head, Office for International Affairs, Ministry of Environment, Brazil
• 4.4 Public participation on environmental aspects of RTAs, perspectives from the Civil Society, Gustavo Alanis, President, Mexican Center for Environmental Law

Session 5: GREENING RTAS ON INVESTMENT

• 5.1 Investor protection and the right to regulate, Ana Novik, Head of Investment Division, Directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs, OECD
• 5.2 Investor protection and the right to regulate for the environment - lessons learnt from NAFTA, CAFTA and other RTAs or BITs, Shunta Yamaguchi, OECD Environment Directorate
• 5.3 Opportunities to incorporate environmental objectives in RTAs related to investment, Aaron Cosbey, Senior Associate, International Institute for Sustainable Development

 

WORKING PAPERS

• Environment and Regional Trade Agreements, OECD Trade and Environment Working Papers, No. 2014/02
• Developments in Regional Trade Agreements and the Environment: 2013 Update, OECD Trade and Environment Working Papers, No. 2014/01
• Developments in Regional Trade Agreements and the Environment: 2012 Update, OECD Trade and Environment Working Papers, No. 2013/04
• Implementing Regional Trade Agreements with Environmental Provisions, OECD Trade and Environment Working Papers, No. 2011/06

 

Participants

The workshop was a multi-stakeholder event that brought together experts in the field of trade and environment from OECD and invited partner governments, international organisations, NGOs and academia.

 

Background

Environmental objectives are increasingly being incorporated into Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) to promote environmental quality, to prevent market failures and externalities related to increasing levels of pollution and ultimately to ensure the mutual supportiveness of trade and environmental policies.

Since 2005, the OECD, under the Joint Working Party on Trade and Environment (JWPTE), has been investigating the trends of environmental provisions in regional trade agreements (RTAs) and their effects on the environment. Under its work programme on trade and the environment, the JWPTE has developed and released several publications on “RTAs and the environment” to deepen knowledge in this emerging area.

In a parallel effort, the JWPTE has organised a number of workshops on RTAs and the environment to create dialogue on this issue by inviting participants from both OECD and non-OECD countries. The first workshop was organised in Paris in 2006 and was followed by several other workshops hosted in: Tokyo, Japan (2007); Santiago, Chile (2008); Paris, France (2010 and 2016); and Hanoi, Vietnam (2014).

The workshop provided an opportunity to engage with countries of Central and Latin America and beyond to update regional dialogue on this topic.

 

Further reading

• Environment and Regional Trade Agreements
• Benefits of trade liberalisation
• Environment and trade

 

Contact Us

• For more information, please contact Shunta Yamaguchi, Policy Analyst, Environment and Economy Integration Division (Shunta.Yamaguchi@oecd.org), OECD Environment Directorate