Trade and Environment at the World Trade Organization: State of Play and Entry Points

This policy brief provides a governance-focused overview of how the World Trade Organization (WTO) addresses the intersection of trade, environment, and sustainable development. It details the various institutional bodies, negotiating processes, and recent member-led initiatives aimed at fostering sustainable trade.

• Although the WTO has no specific agreement dedicated solely to the environment, several existing agreements contain provisions that allow members to implement environmental measures, provided they do not create arbitrary discrimination or disguised restrictions on trade. Article XX of the GATT is the primary instrument allowing measures to protect human, animal, or plant life and health or to conserve exhaustible natural resources.
• Negotiations on fisheries subsidies, led by the Rules Negotiating Group, aim to prohibit subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and overfishing, as well as those granted to vessels engaged in illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing. A key challenge remains balancing these prohibitions with flexibilities for developing countries and least developed countries (LDCs).
• Multilateral negotiations on environmental goods and services have largely stalled. Discussions on environmental goods in the Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE) have been stalled since 2011 due to disagreements over definitions and scope. Similarly, negotiations on environmental services in the Council for Trade in Services (CTS) have been largely dormant, though some momentum returned recently for sectors like engineering and architectural services.
• The WTO monitors trade-related environmental policies through notifications and the Trade Policy Review Mechanism (TPRM). Between 2009 and 2020, over 6,800 environment-related notifications were submitted, referring to more than 14,400 measures, most of which are technical regulations, standards, or conformity assessment procedures targeting the agricultural sector.
• WTO dispute settlement jurisprudence generally affirms that non-discriminatory environmental policies are compatible with WTO obligations. Panels typically focus on whether measures are applied as disguised trade protectionism or unjustifiable discrimination rather than questioning the environmental legitimacy of the measure itself.
• The WTO-led Aid for Trade initiative, launched in 2005, is increasingly being urged to incorporate sustainability. The 2020–22 work programme, themed "Empowering Connected, Sustainable Trade," focuses on how industrialization and economic growth interact with sustainability and circularity.
• Three recent member-led initiatives launched in December 2021 aim to enhance cooperation on environmental challenges: the Trade and Environmental Sustainability Structured Discussions (TESSD), the Informal Dialogue on Plastic Pollution and Environmentally Sustainable Plastics Trade (IDP), and the Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform initiative.
• The TESSD initiative, co-sponsored by 71 members including the US, EU, and China, focuses on trade and climate change, environmental goods and services, circular economy, and the trade impacts of subsidies.
• The Informal Dialogue on Plastic Pollution (IDP), led by co-convenors including China and Fiji, seeks to identify collective actions to reduce plastic pollution and transition to a circular plastics economy, with a target for outcomes by the Thirteenth WTO Ministerial Conference.
• The Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform initiative, which grew to 45 members by December 2021, aims for ambitious disciplines on inefficient fossil fuel subsidies and improved transparency, while ensuring reforms protect poor and vulnerable communities in developing countries.

APA

Bellmann, C., Birkbeck, C. D., Kettunen, M., & Sugathan, M. (2022). Trade and Environment at the World Trade Organization: State of Play and Entry Points. Forum on Trade, Environment, & the SDGs. https://lyrical-cormorant.files.svdcdn.com/production/assets/images/Publications/TESS-Policy-Brief-Trade-and-Environment-at-the-WTO.pdf?dm=1695371679

Chicago

Bellmann, Christophe, Carolyn Deere Birkbeck, Marianne Kettunen, and Mahesh Sugathan. Trade and Environment at the World Trade Organization: State of Play and Entry Points. Forum on Trade, Environment, & the SDGs, 2022. https://lyrical-cormorant.files.svdcdn.com/production/assets/images/Publications/TESS-Policy-Brief-Trade-and-Environment-at-the-WTO.pdf?dm=1695371679.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Bellmann |first1=Christophe |last2=Birkbeck |first2=Carolyn Deere |last3=Kettunen |first3=Marianne |last4=Sugathan |first4=Mahesh |title=Trade and Environment at the World Trade Organization: State of Play and Entry Points |publisher=Forum on Trade, Environment, & the SDGs |date=April 2022 |url=https://lyrical-cormorant.files.svdcdn.com/production/assets/images/Publications/TESS-Policy-Brief-Trade-and-Environment-at-the-WTO.pdf?dm=1695371679 |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{bellmann2022trade, author = {Bellmann, Christophe and Birkbeck, Carolyn Deere and Kettunen, Marianne and Sugathan, Mahesh}, title = {{Trade and Environment at the World Trade Organization: State of Play and Entry Points}}, institution = {Forum on Trade, Environment, \& the SDGs}, year = {2022}, month = apr, url = {https://lyrical-cormorant.files.svdcdn.com/production/assets/images/Publications/TESS-Policy-Brief-Trade-and-Environment-at-the-WTO.pdf?dm=1695371679}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }