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Box 3. JWPTE Workshops on RTAs (2007-2018
Box 3. JWPTE Workshops on RTAs (2006-2018)
This first workshop gathered JWPTE Delegates, observer institutions, experts, and representatives from the civil society, and provided important input into the OECD (2007[32]) report on Environment and Regional Trade Agreements.
The regional workshop gathered experts’ input for the development of the 2008 checklist on environmental provisions in RTAs.
The focus of this regional workshop was on relevant issues in the Americas as well as arrangements for implementing environmental provisions in RTAs and models for co-operation. As RTAs matured, stock was taken of the challenges that had become apparent in translating the provisions set up in RTA negotiations into action at sub-regional and country level
2010 WORKSHOP ON REGIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS: Monitoring implementation and Assessing Impacts, Paris (OECD, 2011)
The workshop extended discussions beyond monitoring and facilitating implementation to assessing the environmental impacts of RTAs. It raised the issue of how RTAs could contribute to green growth, as environmental considerations broaden from damage limitation to sustainable development and green growth.
2014 REGIONAL WORKSHOP ON REGIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS AND THE ENVIRONMENT, Hà Nội, Vietnam (OECD, 2014[49])
The regional workshop aimed to encourage dialogue between RTA negotiators from OECD and ASEAN countries. It also provided a forum for advancing technical discussions on issues such as impact assessment of environmental effects of RTAs, and improved capacity building for ASEAN officials through a simulated mock negotiation. It also discussed the environmental effects of RTAs through the role of RTAs in promoting global EGS value chains.
2016 WORKSHOP ON GREENING REGIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS: Opportunities and Insights from International Experience, Paris (OECD, 2016[50])
Taking stock of experience from different regions and stakeholders, the workshop identified three drivers for greening RTAs: (1) the consensus around the objectives of the Paris Agreement and the SDGs imply trade agreements should contribute to sustainable development; (2) scepticism in civil society about the benefits of trade and globalisation suggests societal and environmental concerns need to be thoroughly addressed in trade agreements; and (3) experience from environmental provisions in RTAs points to the need to align nonenvironmental chapters of RTAs with environmental objectives. The workshop discussed greening RTAs through synergies between trade and environment objectives, and removing obstacles to environmental objectives within existing law. It also identified knowledge gaps.
2018 WORKSHOP ON REGIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS AND THE ENVIRONMENT: Establishing Dialogue with Regional Stakeholders, Santiago, Chile (OECD, 2018[51])
The workshop focused on sharing international and regional experience and discussed developments in the monitoring and evaluation of environmental impacts of RTAs. It featured a session on the role of public participation, which was identified as a challenge by a number of countries, especially with regard to the implementation of environmental provisions, though it was widely recognised as an important element to secure environmental governance and address environmental concerns in trade agreements. The workshop also introduced the topic of greening RTAs in relation to investment provisions.
RTAs could pursue environmental and sustainable development objectives not only via environment chapters or side-agreements but throughout the agreements, for instance in chapters related to market access, investment, and government procurement, technical barriers to trade, subsidies, implementation and capacity building.
There have been shifts in specific areas of interest in response to changes in the broader policy, economic and technological context, and international calls for action. There have also been substantial analytical advances in understanding how linkages between trade and the environment can work together to further both trade and environmental objectives.
