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Introduction

Coverage of the CTE's Mandate

Trade Measures Pursuant to MEAS

Eco-Labelling

Market Access

Other Technical Issues

Relations With IGOs & NGOs

Overall Conclusions


        


Relations with IGO's and NGO's

There have been mixed results on the issue of WTO relations with intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Those intergovernmental bodies who have requested observer status have been granted it. The results of the first request from the secretariat of an environmental agreement for observer status the CBD should be known sometime early in the New Year. The development of the working relationship between these two institutions will be followed with acute interest by NGOs.

On the other hand, the CTEs lock-out of NGOs continues. While NGOs are accredited to attend the plenary session of the Singapore Ministerial, the CTE remains a closed shop to civil society. The CTE recommends, in accordance with the July 1996 decision of the WTOs General Council, that consultations and cooperation with NGOs takes place largely at national levels, and informally through the Secretariat. This is a mistake. Consultation at the national level is in many cases woefully inadequate, and in any case does not make for a transparent international process. Without an ability to track what is happening at the CTE, NGOs, and the general public as a whole, find it very difficult to make timely and relevant inputs to the process.

If WTO is indeed to help direct trade to support sustainable development, it cannot do so in the hermetically sealed box of the current CTE. The WTO, and the officials who work in it, especially in the CTE, have to be sensitized to the environment and development needs of the people they ultimately serve. This requires far more direct contact between WTO negotiators and civil society. All the experience that has been amassed on constructing sustainable development policies in fora such as the Earth Summit underlines this fact. Openness and inclusiveness are the keys to the ultimate effectiveness of the CTE.

Recommendations

The following specific recommendations are aimed at enabling the CTE, and the WTO in general, to work more closely with other intergovernmental bodies, national ministries and civil society, so as to make trade work for sustainable development.

  • Public access to CTE documents, including those authored by WTO Members, must be enhanced. The presumption should be that they are immediately derestricted once all Members have received them, unless a specific case can be made to withold them.

  • The Secretariat should facilitate, formally or informally, meetings between NGOs and WTO delegates at times and in circumstances that enable the NGOs to make an informed and relevant input to the CTE discussions. Such meetings should be the stepping stone to providing observer status for NGOs at CTE meetings.

  • The CTE should become more proactive in seeking the expertise of and cooperation with other intergovernmental bodies with mandates relevant to the trade and environment interface.

  • The participation of environment officials in the CTE, particularly those from developing countries, should be enhanced. This is a matter primarily for WTO Members, but one which the Secretariat should encourage and which would be advanced by technical assistance and/or capacity building activities.



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