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Analysis and discussion of the other items on the CTEs agenda have been much more limited. The following brief treatment, while mentioning all the issues discussed, provides recommendations for action only on some of them. Some issues on the CTE agenda have virtually stalled, notable among these being domestically prohibited goods (DPGs). While there remain serious environmental and human health problems associated with these products, banned or restricted in use domestically but still traded internationally, the CTE has been unable to make substantive progress, seven years after the GATT first started to work on DPGs. This continues to be of serious concern to some developing countries, who suffer the impacts of this trade. While the WTO might not be the primary forum to address this problem, the CTE should actively contribute to policy solutions devised in other relevant intergovernmental bodies and fora. On the issue of the transparency of trade-related environmental measures, the CTE has concluded that no tightening of the relevant WTO rules is necessary, though there is a need for clarification of the notification procedures for these measures. The CTE recommended that all notifications of trade-related environmental measures be collated in a single database. This is likely to be a useful step in that it would make cases of "green protectionism" easier to detect, and also lead to a more substantive and hence objective assessment of this problem. The discussions on the relationship between the TRIPs Agreement and the environment have generated heat but little progress. A stand-off has dominated the discussions, with Indias calls for more transfer of environmentally friendly technology receiving the US riposte of the need to maintain TRIPs obligations. Strangely, there is not even any reference to the forthcoming review of the TRIPs provision for the patenting of life forms (Article 27.3(b)) which has major environmental implications. There is mention of information exchange between the CTE and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). This information exchange looks set to increase, given the CBD Secretariats forthcoming request for observer status in the CTE. There has been virtually no work on the relationship between trade in services and the environment. WTO Members seem to be struggling with the lack of information on this issue. A useful starting point post-Singapore could be work on the transport sector, which has many direct and significant impacts on the environment. There has been more work in the committee on the issue of taxes and charges for environmental purposes, but this has resulted in even less text in the final report than on services. The issue of Border Tax Adjustment on ecological taxes such as carbon taxes has been excised from Chapter 3 of the report. This is a strange decision, given the increasing importance of economic instruments in environmental policy-making. This is one of the most rapidly growing contact points between trade and environment policy, and one that will have to be addressed in detail by the CTE, if it is serious about fulfilling its mandate. Recommendations The following issues should be prioritized by the CTE, post-Singapore:
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