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The second retrospective report, 2008-2020
THE SECOND RETROSPECTIVE REPORT, 2008-2020
Taking stock of the twelve years since the previous retrospective report is not only timely, but also essential to help inform the direction of JWPTE’s future undertakings. The aim of this report is therefore dual. First, it seeks to provide a retrospective of the contribution that the JWPTE and more broadly the OECD have made to advancing policy analysis over this period, serving as a reference for the Working Party’s institutional memory. Second, with the benefit of hindsight, it seeks out the drivers of current and emerging trade and environment issues to ensure that the JWPTE’s work remains as relevant in the future as it has been in the past.
The report focuses on issues that have been at the centre of the JWPTE’s work in the last twelve years. In keeping with the dual aim of the report, these issues have been chosen as much for their historical importance as their relevance to the Working Party’s ongoing and future work, which is first and foremost shaped by the broader economic and environment policy context. The Working Party in turn seeks to shape this context by informing the debate and improving understanding of trade and environment issues. As a result, the issues that the JWPTE focuses on at any one time are often the drivers of policy changes down the line.
This retrospective draws on the JWPTE’s output such as Trade and Environment Working Papers and other unclassified reports (listed in the Annex I). Relevant work undertaken elsewhere in the OECD to which the JWPTE has contributed or which it has relied upon is also documented3. The JWPTE’s work is placed in the wider context of economic, trade and environment policy developments and issues since 2008.
The retrospective is organised around four sets of major issues, which correspond to the main chapters of the report:
l Multilateral and plurilateral trade agreements and environmental policies (Chapter 2), with a focus on two topics: (i) trade in environmental goods and services and (ii) environmentally harmful subsidies, notably on the reform of government support for fossil fuels and for fisheries. l Regional trade agreements and the environment (Chapter 3), organised around three main streams of work: (i) tracking and analysing the typology of environmental provisions in RTAs, (ii) assessing the implementation and effectiveness of environmental provisions, and (iii) the greening of RTAs beyond environmental provisions.
l Global environment issues, policy responses and their linkages with trade (Chapter 4), with focus on the trade dimension of four key topics: climate change and renewable energy, resource efficient and circular economies, biodiversity, environmental labelling and information schemes, and digitalisation.
l Mutually supportive trade and environment policies: indicators and quantitative analyses (Chapter 5), which includes (i) policy indicators on trade and the environment, as well as (ii) assessments of competitiveness and the pollution haven effect.
These categories often overlap, a single piece of work being relevant to more than one topic and crossreferenced where needed. In many cases, work in one area has provided input for work in another area, with quantitative work (databases and inventories), and taxonomy work (typologies and surveys) feeding into several areas of analytical work.
The last chapter (Chapter 6) is devoted to providing a view on the emerging context and directions for possible future work undertaken under the auspices of the JWPTE (Chapter 6). It considers key elements of context in international governance, as well as the main drivers of current and emerging trade and environment issues that are likely to shape the Working Party’s future work. These considerations, along with input from its Members and under the guidance of its parent committees, aim to ensure that the JWPTE’s work remains at the forefront of policy developments and fully contributes to advancing analysis and understanding.
3. Note also that the Environment Policy Committee, one of JWPTE’s parent committees, also plans to publish an overview of its work in the last decade in 2021.
