The Critical Mass Approach to Achieve a Deal on Green Goods and Services : What Is on the Table? How Much to Expect?

At the Davos forum of January 2014, a group of 14 countries pledged to launch negotiations on liberalizing trade in "green goods" (also known as "environmental" goods), focusing on the elimination of tariffs for an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation list of 54 products. The paper shows that the Davos group, with an average tariff of 1.8 percent, has little to offer as countries have avoided submitting products with tariff peaks for tariff reductions. Even if the list were extended to the 411 products on the World Trade Organization list, taking into account tariff dispersion, the tariff structure on environmental goods would be equivalent to a uniform tariff of 3.4 percent, about half the uniform tariff-equivalent for non-environmental goods. Enlarging the number of participants to low-income countries might be possible as, on average, their imports would not increase by more than 8 percent. However, because of the strong complementarities between trade in environmental goods and trade in environmental services, these should also be brought to the negotiation table, although difficulties in reaching agreement on their scope are likely to be great.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	de Melo, Jaime, Vijil, Mariana
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank Group, Washington, DC 2014-10
Subjects:	ABATEMENT, ADJUSTMENT ASSISTANCE, AGGREGATE IMPORTS, AVERAGE TARIFF, AVERAGE TARIFF LEVELS, AVERAGE TARIFFS, BARRIERS TO ENTRY, BARRIERS TO TRADE, BENCHMARK, BILATERAL INVESTMENT TREATIES, BILATERAL TRADE, BORDER TRADE, CHANGES IN TRADE, CLIMATE CHANGE, COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE, COMPETITION POLICIES, CONSUMERS, CUSTOMS, DEMAND ELASTICITIES, DEVELOPED COUNTRIES, DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, DEVELOPMENT POLICY, DISPUTE SETTLEMENT, DOMESTIC REGULATION, ECONOMIC ACTIVITY, ECONOMIC COOPERATION, ECONOMICS, ELASTICITIES, ELASTICITY, ELIMINATION OF TARIFFS, EMISSIONS, ENVIRONMENTAL, ENVIRONMENTAL GOODS, ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, ENVIRONMENTAL USE, EXPORTS, EXTERNALITIES, FINAL GOODS, FOREIGN FIRMS, FREE TRADE AREAS, FREE-TRADE AGREEMENTS, GLOBAL FREE TRADE, GRAVITY MODEL, HIGH TARIFFS, HUMAN CAPITAL, IMPORT DATA, IMPORT INCREASES, IMPORT VALUE, INCOME, INCOME GROUPS, INTERNATIONAL STANDARD, INTERNATIONAL TRADE, INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN SERVICES, INVESTMENT TREATIES, LEVEL OF PROTECTION, LOBBYING, LOW TARIFFS, MARKET ACCESS, MARKET FAILURES, MARKET POWER, MIDDLE INCOME COUNTRIES, MULTILATERAL LIBERALIZATION, MULTILATERAL NEGOTIATIONS, MULTILATERAL TRADE, MUTUAL AGREEMENT, MUTUAL RECOGNITION, NATIONAL TREATMENT, NETWORK EXTERNALITIES, NON-TARIFF BARRIERS, POLLUTION, POLLUTION CONTROL, PREFERENTIAL BASIS, PREFERENTIAL TRADE, PREFERENTIAL TRADE AGREEMENT, PREFERENTIAL TRADE AGREEMENTS, PRICE ELASTICITY, PRICE SUPPORT, RECYCLING, REDUCTION IN TARIFFS, REDUCTION OF BARRIERS, REGIONAL TRADE, REGIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS, TARIFF BARRIERS, TARIFF DATA, TARIFF DISPERSION, TARIFF ESTIMATES, TARIFF EXEMPTIONS, TARIFF LINES, TARIFF PROTECTION, TARIFF RATE, TARIFF REDUCTION, TARIFF REDUCTIONS, TARIFF STRUCTURE, TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE, TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS, TELECOMMUNICATIONS, TOURISM, TRADE BARRIERS, TRADE COOPERATION, TRADE COSTS, TRADE DATA, TRADE DISTORTIONS, TRADE FLOWS, TRADE IN GOODS, TRADE IN SERVICES, TRADE LIBERALIZATION, TRADE POLICIES, TRADE POLICY, URUGUAY ROUND, VALUE ADDED, WASTE MANAGEMENT, WELFARE LOSS, WORLD TRADE, WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION, WTO, ZERO TARIFFS,
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/10/20291029/critical-mass-approach-achieve-deal-green-goods-services-table-much-expect https://hdl.handle.net/10986/20499
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