Trade, Circular Economy, and Sustainable Development

This report by the Forum on Trade, Environment, & the SDGs (TESS) provides guidance on the design and implementation of trade-related circular economy policies and measures (TrCEMs). It aims to help governments create frameworks that achieve environmental and public health goals while minimizing trade costs and supporting fair transitions, particularly for developing countries.

• The report identifies three primary objectives currently underpinning the development of trade-related circular economy policies and measures (TrCEMs): eliminating harmful products or materials, ensuring market products align with resource-efficient standards, and facilitating safe circular supply chains, including reverse logistics.
• A significant barrier to international cooperation is the lack of consistent terminology and product classification. The Harmonized System (HS) for trade classification was not designed to distinguish goods by environmental impact or intended use, leading to inconsistent trade data and policy misalignment.
• The report recommends following good regulatory practices to ensure TrCEMs are non-discriminatory. This includes basing measures on the best available scientific evidence, ensuring origin neutrality, and conducting ex-ante and ex-post assessments of economic, social, and environmental impacts.
• Regulatory heterogeneity in circular economy requirements, such as varying fees for extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes, increases administrative burdens for exporters, especially micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in developing countries.
• There is a call to expand the geographic scope of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) systems. Because products are often exported to developing economies for repair or reuse and eventually become waste there, the report suggests linking Producer Responsibility Organizations (PROs) so that fees can follow the product to the destination country for end-of-life management.
• To ensure coherence, the report suggests that trade-related requirements for exports should match domestic requirements. For example, if a country bans a specific single-use plastic domestically, it should also ban its export.
• The report advocates for the promotion of trade in goods and services that enable circularity, such as remanufacturing equipment or biodegradable substitutes. It notes that a lack of specific HS codes for waste-based products, such as pineapple leaf fibres in Kenya, hinders their competitiveness.
• Improving reverse supply chains for end-of-life products, particularly in the electronics sector, requires refining and digitalizing Prior Informed Consent (PIC) procedures under the Basel Convention to reduce costs and cumbersome processes.
• Developing countries face a risk of a 'circular divide' due to lack of standard infrastructure and technical capacity. The report suggests mitigating this through longer adjustment periods, recognizing regulatory equivalences, and integrating circular economy needs into 'Aid for Trade' initiatives.
• A WTO mapping exercise revealed that 520 circular economy measures were notified by 85 members, with 20 members accounting for 77% of these. Most measures focus on downstream life cycle stages, specifically recycling and hazardous waste management, with packaging being the most frequently addressed sector.

APA

Forum on Trade, Environment, & the SDGs (2024). Trade, Circular Economy, and Sustainable Development. https://lyrical-cormorant.files.svdcdn.com/production/assets/images/Publications/TESS-Report-Trade-Circular-Economy-and-Sustainable-Development.pdf?dm=1727082344

Chicago

Forum on Trade, Environment, & the SDGs. Trade, Circular Economy, and Sustainable Development. 2024. https://lyrical-cormorant.files.svdcdn.com/production/assets/images/Publications/TESS-Report-Trade-Circular-Economy-and-Sustainable-Development.pdf?dm=1727082344.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Forum on Trade, Environment, & the SDGs |title=Trade, Circular Economy, and Sustainable Development |date=September 2024 |url=https://lyrical-cormorant.files.svdcdn.com/production/assets/images/Publications/TESS-Report-Trade-Circular-Economy-and-Sustainable-Development.pdf?dm=1727082344 |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{forumontradeenvironmentthesdgs2024trade, author = {{Forum on Trade, Environment, \& the SDGs}}, title = {{Trade, Circular Economy, and Sustainable Development}}, institution = {Forum on Trade, Environment, \& the SDGs}, year = {2024}, month = sep, url = {https://lyrical-cormorant.files.svdcdn.com/production/assets/images/Publications/TESS-Report-Trade-Circular-Economy-and-Sustainable-Development.pdf?dm=1727082344}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }