Relationship between WTO and MEA rules

There are over 250 multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) dealing with various environmental issues which are currently in force. About 20 of these include provisions that can affect trade. For instance, they may contain measures that prohibit trade in certain species or products, or that allow countries to restrict trade in certain circumstances.

A question that may arise is whether measures under a multilateral agreement are compatible with WTO rules. For example, a multilateral agreement could authorize trade in a specific product between its parties, but ban trade in the same product with countries that have not signed the agreement.

This could be found to be incompatible with WTO’s non-discrimination principle known as “most favoured nation treatment”, which requires countries to grant equivalent treatment to the same (or “like”) products imported from any WTO member country. On the other hand, WTO rules do allow members to derogate from their obligations in some cases, for instance where a measure is aimed at the conservation of natural resources, provided certain conditions are met.

No formal dispute involving a measure under a multilateral environmental agreement has so far been brought to the WTO. However, the complexity of the relationship between environmental and trade rules was highlighted in the “Chile — Swordfish” case.

At the 2001 Doha Ministerial Conference, members agreed to negotiate on the relationship between WTO rules and the multilateral environmental agreements, particularly those that contain “specific trade obligations” (STOs). These negotiations take place in special sessions of the Trade and Environment Committee. Members have agreed that the scope of these negotiations would be limited to applicability of WTO rules to WTO members that have signed the multilateral environmental agreement under consideration.

Since the beginning of the negotiations, discussions have focused on the scope of the negotiating mandate (including the definition of specific trade obligations) and on potential outcomes of the negotiations. In parallel, members have also embarked on an exercise of sharing their national experiences in the negotiation and domestic implementation of trade measures under multilateral environmental agreements.