EGA Third Round December 1-5 in Geneva

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December 2, 2014

    The third round of the Environmental Goods Agreement (EGA) negotiations is scheduled to take place from December 1-5 of this year.  The fourteen countries, including the United States, China, and the European Union, involved in the agreement are working together to remove duties on environmental products by the middle of 2015.  The countries involved in negotiations comprise 86% of the world’s trade of environmental goods.  During this round, the product nominations will focus on items for water management, cleanup of water and soil, and noise and vibration reductions.  According to the U.S. Office of Trade Representatives, the tariffs on environmental goods can be upwards of 35% and the EGA would reduce tariffs to below 5% for those items chosen for inclusion.

    There are several obstacles to the implementation of the EGA.  The members will need to discuss how to handle items that have environmental and non-environmental applications, known as dual use goods.  Additionally, environmental groups have stated that they are concerned the items chosen for the list will not actually benefit the environment.  The application of a plurilateral agreement has also been criticized by other members of the World Trade Organization.  Regarding the EGA negotiations process, Minister-counselor for trade at the Australian Embassy in Washington, Simon Newnham commented, “You got to focus on the product list first, you have to focus on the membership of who is in it, then you make your judgments about critical mass.”

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